Kotor Revan Reborn
by Reven Onasi
Summary: Betrayed by his apprentice, captured by the Jedi, mind broken and reformed into that of a soldier. Revan fights for answers to his past. Once he finds them, will he fight for life and the light, or bring the galaxy to it knees? Story follows the major events of the game. Contains Mature content. Thanks for reading!
1. Chapter 1

I have never written a story like this before. This is the first time I have ever posted something online for anyone else to read.

Please if you have the time, give me a review. I need feedback so I can improve my work in the future.

Thanks for reading.

 **I do not own Star Wars and make no claim to the intellectual property rights of Disney.**

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Prologue

The hum and hiss of lightsabers flashed back and forth, the scent of ozone filled the air from the force lightning singeing blackened burnt patches in the bulkheads and deck plating. Also thick in the air was the smell of burnt flesh from those less powerful in the force, unable to stand against the onslaught of the black robed figure flying across the room at incredible speed.

He was a nothing but a blur of motion. Moving so fast that the Purple saber he wielded seemed to be a solid sheet of light as he flashed past cutting through the slower and weaker members of the boarding party. All over the deck plaiting their lay crumpled bodies, some in the silver armor of the Sith troopers others in the brown and tan robes of the Jedi knights and Padawans that came in the desperate hope of stopping the Sith lord.

Suddenly he seemed to materialize in front of a beautiful brown haired young woman no more than 18. Despite her age however she raised her Double Saber and flashed forward without hesitation. She flew at him with a burst of speed, the blades of her saber flowing into a single two meter wide disk of deadly golden light.

If the Sith lord was startled by her sudden attack he made no sign of it, simply taking a step back and whipping his own blade up with startling speed to neatly parry the blow. She continued undaunted steadily pushing the Dark Lord back with the power and speed of her assault.

After another few moments of fierce fighting 3 more Jedi rushed onto the bridge of the Massive Dreadnought. Pausing only a moment to take in the utter carnage of the bridge deck before rushing to the aid of the beautiful young woman who was still managing to push back the imposing black robed figure toward the transparasteel of the bridges main viewing port.

The new Jedi were all older than the young woman. Two male and one female they all wore the brown and tan robes of the Jedi. The two males were both human one dark skinned black as ebony in the dim light of the bridge with a bald head in his mid 50's or so. The other was much younger and Fair skinned with blond hair and bright green eyes flashing with repressed rage as he charged head long at the black demon of destruction before him. The female was a deep violet skinned Twi'lek with matching violet eyes in her mid 30's or there about. Of the 3 she was by far the most dangerous, carrying two silver bladed Shotos marked her as a Weapons Master the most skilled combat experts the Jedi had to offer. In fact in order to become an official member of the Weapon Masters one had to master all seven forms of lightsaber combat, they were by far and away the most dangerous members of the Jedi Order.

Apparently the Dark Lord recognizing the danger. He disengaged the young woman by slamming her in the chest with a force push powerful enough to send her flipping end over end several meters back, straight into the oncoming Jedi. The older man deactivated his saber at once and leaped into the air, letting her slam into him and send them both sprawling across the deck, stunned.

The younger man distracted for the merest moment, was bought sharply back to attention by the sudden arc of terrible force lightning that caught him square in the chest. The blast hit him with such force that he went flying back across the bridge to slam into the bulkhead 15 meters away with a sickening crunch. The beautiful young woman with the golden saber looked up just in time to see his lifeless body fall to the deck dead, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle.

All at once I was in the body of the dark lord looking out through his eyes at the oncoming Weapons Master, cold determination in her eyes. I could feel the burning rage churning inside filling him with him power and purpose.

No not 'Him'. Me, I was the dark lord in that moment I could feel the unbridled power burning through every atom of my body. The rage and the hate was overwhelming, the sense of power intoxicating. I stood completely still, deep purple lightsaber humming softly at my side. I waited patiently for the weapons master to reach me, the fierce joy of the hunt and the kill bubbling up through my veins. This woman posed no threat to me, not with the power of the Dark side so utterly under my command. She was as a bug buzzing around my head, a mere annoyance and nothing more. Whats more she knew it, I could feel the resignation grow inside her as she fell upon me. I easily avoided her attack batting aside her most powerful blows one handed without budging and inch from my place. The force flowed through me in a torrent of power making time seem to slow. To an outside observer she would probably seem to move with such speed as to be nothing but a blur of limbs and saber flashes, but to me each of her strikes seemed to take forever, it felt like I waited minutes for each attack to find my own blade.

I could have finished her in the first 5 moves of the engagement. Or for that matter, I could have snapped her neck with the force before she ever got near me. But I waited, toying with her. Feeding off her feeling of hopeless resignation and frustration. Not realizing the situation for what it was the young woman and the older man were up and rushing forward to help moving with pitiful slowness each step seeming to take many seconds at least. Although they were probably running at 50 kph or more.

Abruptly I was out of the Dark lord looking down on the battle once more. The sudden change in perspective and perception of time feel quite jarring. All the sudden the two Jedi were flying forward with incredible speed covering the remaining distance in just under a second, their Sabers flashing with blinding speed. The fight dissolved into discs of light and blurring motion.

Suddenly my eye was drawn out toward the bridges huge view port. A fierce space battle was underway outside, strange that I had not noticed it before. The Capital Class Dreadnought out the view port, swiveled it's turbo laser batteries directly at me. The Massive barrels seeming to gape open like a black hole, infinite destruction hidden in their depths.

Then the whole world exploded as dozens of red streaks slammed into the hull all along the ships side, several of them smashing directly into the bridges view port. The explosion launched the Dark lord and the Jedi across the bridge to slam into the opposite bulkhead. Atmosphere instantly flew out the huge hole left by the barrage of laser fire but was cut off almost at once by an emergency force field snapping up to seal the gaping hole.

I could see the young brown haired Jedi slowly get to her feat, fumbling her lightsaber onto her belt as she staggered about looking for survivors.

Another Huge explosion rocked the ship and I felt like I was being shaken about in a bottle. But the young Jedi didn't seem to notice as she went over to check her two comrades for life signs. Apparently finding none her shoulders shook in a single silent sob as she got back to her feet; and walked to the dark lord. He lay there, seemingly lifeless on the deck completely still. A good sized piece of metal stuck out of his back a good 20 centimeters. Long and jagged, blood soaking into the cloth around the wound.

As she leaned down to check his pulse another massive shudder went through the ship, the last thing I saw were her eyes popping open wide, with either astonishment or alarm I couldn't tell.

The next thing I felt was deck plaiting slam hard into my left side. My eyes sprang wide at the shock and pain. I was laying on my side on the cold deck of my bunk room. For a moment I was completely confused with no idea where I was or what was happening. Then another loud boom of metallic thunder rung through the ship and everything came flooding back all at once. Leaving me reeling for another moment. I was on the Endar Spire, a Hammerhead Class battle cruiser for the Republic. We were heading to Taris, an Ecumenopolis Planet just off the Hydian Way. We were taking a Jedi, what was her name… Bastila Shan that was it, a special Jedi that had the ability to effect entire battle fields through the 'Force' or some such thing. Our mission was to rendezvous with a small Republic fleet and brake the Sith blockade of the planet.

Something must have gone wrong, no way Trask wouldn't come get me if we had met up with the fleet while I was still sleeping. I was on board specifically to advise Bastila during the battle. Not something a Special Operations Marine Corps Sergeant was usually ordered to do. I was quite adapt with battle strategy it was true, but I doubted I would have much to contribute. Still the order came down and I was shipped off to Dantooine, where I waited for a few pleasant days until the Endar Spire arrived to collect the Jedi and myself.

Just then another 'Boom' sounded somewhere farther aft and the deck shook beneath me. I rolled to me feet and went to my equipment locker by my bunk and started getting my gear and battle armor on. I was half in and half out of my armor when the hatch behind my made a loud 'chunking' noise. I spun blaster in hand, balancing on one foot. Half my body was covered in Battle Armor, the other half including one buttock hung free in the open air, as the hatch slid back into the wall. Trask Ulgo stood in the open hatch, despite the strain lining his face, a small smile twitched at the corner of his mouth seeing me balancing there on one leg half naked.

"Don't say it." I snapped glaring at him.

A tall thin man in his late 40's Trask had gone almost completely grey making him look much older than he really was. Despite that he was still a handsome man with high broad cheek bones, a straight nose and square jaw. A classic soldier, Trask had been in the republic navy since he was 19 years old. So for him to have that almost panicked look on his face, it must be very bad.

"What's happened?!" I asked putting the blaster down and getting my battle armor on the rest of the way.

"The Sith ambushed us! We are dead in the space, they interdicted us just above Taris. We've also been boarded, Sith troopers are flooding the ship." He replied turning and hitting the pad next to the hatchway.

"What about Bastila?" I asked, pulling on holsters for blaster pistols and slinging my twin Vibroblades across my back.

"Bastila and the officers are already off the ship." Trask said leaning against the wall to catch his breath.

"So we don't have any chance of escaping with the Spire?" I asked, finally getting my Helmet locked into place. As I booted up my wrist comp and my visor HUD, the possibilities ran through my mind.

We were going down, that much was obvious. Once I was on the ground, what would I need more than anything else in a hostile but civilized environment? I pulled on the last of my gear and grabbed a couple of large equipment bags out from under my bunk.

"No we have been ordered to the escape pods with all haste" He said straightening up, confirming my own conclusions.

"Ok then take this" I said tossing him a bag. "Take any weapons and equipment you can grab on the way."

"What! Why? We don't have time for this we need to get to the escape pods now!" he said looking at me like I had lost my mind.  
"Look we are going to be on a Sith controlled world with no backup from the republic and no possibility of rescue. We are going to be fending for ourselves." I said pushing past him and smacking the door release. "We are going to need weapons and credits if we want to find a way off of the planet. I don't know about you but the Republic doesn't pay me very well."

I stepped out into the hall, heavily modified blaster carbine at my shoulder; scanning down the passage way for Sith. "A single thermal detonator will be worth a couple thousand credits on the black market down there Trask. So unless you want to spend the next few years on Taris just do as I ask please" I said in a low whisper as I edged my way down the corridor.

The Spires lay out was a pretty simple arrangement, a large Hammerhead class ship it had 3 main decks and a few smaller secondary decks for storage and backup systems. It was crewed by around 40-120 personnel with enough room to take a decent amount of troops, equipment, cargo, ect. Fortunately for us the senior crew quarters, where we were right now. Was on the same deck as the bridge, unfortunately we would have to make our way down the whole length of the ship to get to the bridge. The only way to the escape pods was through the starboard auxiliary exit... on the bridge. Something of a design flaw in my opinion.

I could feel Trask's disapproval behind me but he didn't argue as we approached the hatch at the end of the hall leading to a connecting corridor that would take us to the primary, central corridor that ran the whole length of the ship.

I smacked the hatch release and took a step back going down on one knee, blaster at the ready. The hatch released and slid back with a loud metallic 'chunking' sound. Just beyond the door were two Sith heavy troopers blood red armor gleaming in the bright over head lamps, heavy repeating blasters pointing straight down the hall.

They saw us crouched to the side almost at once, but it was just a little to slow to save them. The moment they came into view I opened up on them with my specialized blaster carbine. It's modified focusing lens and overcharged emitter, shooting out short bursts of laser fire strong enough to cut through 15 centimeters of Durasteel. The thin armor of the heavy troopers did almost nothing to protect them. In less than 2 seconds I had put half a dozen bursts into them, each hit burning a 2 and a half centimeter hole completely through them leaving small bright spots of light in their torso's. They folded up and crumpled to the floor like puppets with their strings cut.

I waited another 15 seconds to see if they had any back up near by to come help, nothing but silence interrupted by the rumbling shudders of the ship reached my ears, through the sound enhancing sensors of my helmet. After all my blaster carbine was an infiltration model, it made almost no noise when fired.

Deciding that nothing was coming I moved forward as quietly as I could stooping down to take their weapons and gear storing it in my duffle before continuing on toward the bridge.

We came into contact with another 4 squads of Sith before reaching the bridge, between Trask and I we took them down quickly and efficiently gathering their weapons and gear as we went. When we came to the bridge Trask and I dropped our bags now heavy with equipment and numerous weapons.

Silently I set my blaster rifle down on top of the gear bag next to the hatch and pulled my Vibroblades from the scabbards at my back. Trask followed suit by activating a Sith personal shield he pulled off a corpse and drawing his own Cortosis long sword. I looked at him questioning as I listened to the fighting just beyond the bulkhead. He nodded to me, nervous tension lining his face, outlined by the faint glow of the energy field around him. Even so I could feel his determination despite the fear coursing through him.

I waited another 3 heart beats to steady myself and slammed my hand down on the hatch release. It smoothly and quickly slide back 'chunking' all the way, revealing pandemonium. The bridge was quite large, about 18 meters across at the stern, slowly tapering to about 8 meters at the forward viewport. The transparasteel view port at the bow large and looming black with a sliver of the systems star in the corner shining bright across the bridge, throwing the carnage of battle into sharp relief. The walls were lined with smaller view ports, and duty stations. Swivel chairs were bolted to the deck every few feet, large bright display screens flashing crimson behind them. Alarms were blaring with startling volume making it difficult to hear anything over the klaxon shrieks.

At the far end of the bridge, a Jedi and a Sith were dueling furiously, outlined in the blackness of space beyond them. Sparks flew from their blades as they battered each other back and forth across the deck. Around them Sith and Republic troopers were locked in savage close quarters battle. Vibroblades and Cortosis daggers flashing back and forth in a desperate bid to acquaint each others vital organs with the deck plates. While at the same time trying just as hard to keep said vital organs right where they were.

The sound of battle and sirens were so loud that only a couple of Sith facing the hatch noticed it open. They immediately disengaged with the few Republic soldiers they were fighting and charged us blades held high hoping to catch us off guard and end the fight before it began. One of the Republic soldiers turned, saw us and then ran after the two Sith obviously intending to take one of them from behind and help us with the other.

I was already running. The moment the hatch opened I charged in, taking in the scene of carnage and chaos on the run. I met the two Sith at a sprint, they slowed down quickly, readying themselves for my attack. They weren't ready. I didn't slow instead I slammed into the closer of the two at a full sprint my not inconsiderable weight bowling him to the floor. I continued with my momentum rolling off of him to the side, right into the legs of his companion before either of them could recover. The other Sith taken off guard tripped over me and fell face first right on top of his comrade. I was already moving again rolling back toward them dropping my right blade. I took the left in both hands reared up onto my knees and brought the Vibroblade down with all my strength driving it down through both men the tip of the blade sticking into the deck plates.

They writhed on the ground for a moment as blood slowly pooled out around them. They made no sound at all, their helmets holding in their dying cries. I twisted the blade hard to the left exacerbating the wound before pulling it free. I left them where they lie grabbed up my other blade and stood, to find the Republic soldier who had come to help, looking down at the two dead Sith with wide eyed astonishment.

Leaving the man to deal with his own shock I glanced around to find Trask in a fierce battle with two Sith of his own. He was obviously a skilled duelist but so were the Sith and they were pushing him back steadily toward the bulkhead. I could see him slowing under their combined onslaught, already flagging with fatigue. Without thinking I flung the sword in my right hand as hard as I could at the Sith closer to me.

I ran after it legs pumping hard and adrenaline singing in my blood. I switched my remaining blade to my right hand, readying myself to strike the moment I was in range. I watched as the other Vibroblade hit its target, the flat of the blade slammed into the Sith's left arm hard enough to knock him off balance, making him swerve into his partner. Surprise and confusion froze the two Sith for a moment, just long enough for Trask to break past the guard of the other Sith and drive his long sword into the man's stomach, the shriek of metal piercing metal barely audible above the sounds of battle. Then I was on the second Sith, I spun a full circle whipping my arm around as fast as I could. I felt a little resistance then the sword slipped free of it's target and I jerked it to a stop. The Sith stood stock still for a moment one hand up raised towards me palm out, as if asking me to stop. Then his helmet toppled off his shoulders to thunk down solidly against the deck, the now headless body fell twitching to the ground small gout's of blood spurting across the floor.

I bent to retrieve my discarded sword as Trask yanked his own free of the other Sith and let him slide down to the deck. He was panting with exertion. After taking a couple shaky steps forward, he stopped and leaned on his sword, the point stuck into the deck.

Before us the bridge battle was waning, only the very best and the luckiest combatants still standing. All around them bodies littered the decking. Crimson pools of spreading blood covering most of the floor. Severed limbs and weapons scattered everywhere.

Holodramas like to make out battles as long, drawn out, elegant things. Where the hero valiantly faces the villain in honorable combat and when one of them falls there is no blood and the body's of the dead look almost asleep, eyes closed and peaceful.

That is not reality. Fights to the death only lasted a few seconds in my experience. In a normal fight if you made a mistake you got hurt, but usually kept going. In a fight to the death however, your fist mistake was your last. Neither was battle a graceful thing, even skilled fighters often looked like nothing more than drunken brawlers. Smashing into each other tripping over objects and corpses, then rolling around on the ground trying desperately to gain any advantage over the other person. This left every corpse not only with wide staring eyes, but also with strange wounds as well like bite marks, scratches and missing pieces; like and eye or an ear. The full helmets of the Sith troops didn't help. In my minds eye I could still see their eyes, wide and staring behind the visors. The scent of blood and excrement filled the air. Not something usually mentioned in the Holo's. The dead always shit themselves.

We watched the last few men fight over near the starboard exit off the bridge. One of the Republic soldiers slipped in the blood at his feet and fell forward right onto the Vibroblade of the Sith in front of him. The Sith jerked with surprise and backpedaled trying to get away from the corpse falling toward him. He tripped over the corpse of a republic soldier and fell backward. He landed hard the back of his neck hitting a kick plate at the base of a console. I could hear the sickening crunch of bone clearly as his neck broke, I wondered idly if the man would have been pleased that he took one more Sith with him to the grave after he died? The Sith lay dead, his victims face in his groin a disturbing parody of lovers.

War and battle are many things but one thing they most certainly are not, is elegant.

With the crunch of the Sith's neck I realized that I could hear clearly. The sirens had stopped I had no idea if that was good or bad, but I thought all the same it would be best to get off the ship quickly. I ran back to the port side bridge hatch, flicking blood off my Vibroblades as I ran. Sliding to a stop at the gear bags I sheathed my swords, shoved my blaster rifle into one of the bags. Slung them up over my shoulders, tightened the straps and ran back to Trask. Grabbing his arm I pulled him stumbling after me, trying to sheath his own sword.

I headed for the starboard bridge hatch. By this time only two men were left standing. Both Republic soldiers, they were leaning against consoles panting open mouthed watching the Jedi Knight and the Sith warrior, still battling with seemingly endless energy. Sabers flashing through the air so fast that they appeared to be nothing but discs of light zipping back and forth with incredible speed meeting with such force that sparks went spraying off over the floor on most hits.

Just as we made it to the port hatchway I felt a cold of fear run down my spine. With out thinking I wrapped one arm around Trask's chest and dove to the floor. Trask made a startled 'squeak' of surprise as we hit the floor next to one of the console swivel chairs. I wrapped my free arm around it's base. Feeling the cold line of dread run down my spine once more, I looked back to the Jedi and Sith by the main view port. They suddenly jumped apart and ran for the exits, as if by some unspoken signal. They only made it two steps before the world exploded.

A blinding flash of light like a miniature sun appeared outside the main view port. An explosion so loud I though the hole ship must surely be blown apart rocked the bridge. Then wind was rushing by me like a hurricane threatening to yank me free of the chair I was clutching for all my life. Some how I had also kept a hold on Trask as well, I wasn't sure but I thought I could hear him screaming.

The two Republic men had been sucked out into space at once. Smashing into consoles and screens on the way. But the Jedi and the Sith were standing in the middle of the bridge bent over in a sprinters stance. I watched in slack jawed amazement as they started to walk forward, their robes whipping back and forth wildly, in the hurricane force of the atmosphere being sucked past them into space. Incredibly they made slow progress forward. Looking for all the world to be in some kind of fantastical time dilation effect. Bent forward with the exaggerated movement of slow motion sprinting yet with their robes whipping around them crazily as if moving at incredible speed. The effect was one of unreality brought into stark relief against the life and death stakes of the situation. But then a secondary explosion erupted next to the Sith. This was apparently to much and he was yanked off of his feet flying back, flipping end over vainly grabbing at everything he past, before smashing into a number of consoles that seemed to stun him for just an instant. As he went past the edge of the view port however he regained his senses and spun to face the Jedi still moving toward us slowly one step at a time.

Everything seemed to slow, events moving at only a fraction of normal. In that moment I could see everything. The Sith's face, twisted with rage and fear, dotted with perspiration. A very handsome, black haired man with startling bright hazel eyes that seemed almost to glow with malevolence. Olive skin gleaming against the glare from the tiny sliver of the sun shining in the corner of the view port. He reached out a hand to the Jedi with exquisite slowness before making a fist and yanking it back with a triumphant gleam in those hate filled eyes.

The Jedi was startlingly beautiful, pale skinned with high cheekbones and a long straight nose. Waist length honey blond hair whipping back and forth in the wind. Light blue almost silvery eyes, looking straight back into mine. The look on her face went from one of intense concentration, to surprise followed quickly by a small peaceful smile as her eyes closed.

Then she was falling backward towards the gaping black maw of endless space. Unlike the Sith who had grabbed for everything he passed in a vein effort to save himself, she held her arms tight at her sides, Lightsaber hilt glinting silver in her hand as she flew back. She reminded me of a missile, heading for a target with single minded grace and purpose. _What a waste! No wonder the Sith are winning, if the Jedi all meet death with such easy acceptance._ I thought to myself feeling a wave of deep sadness at the injustice of it.

Just as she past the rim of the view port, the ships emergency life support panels activated slamming down over the gaping hole into space and catching the Jedi just behind the shoulder blades. The wind stopped rushing abruptly leaving only a high pitched whistling noise in its wake.

Slowly I unwrapped my arm from around the chair base then let go of Trask, ears ringing terribly in the sudden silence. Getting to my feet slowly, feeling shaky, my arms burning terribly from the strain of holding Trask's and my own weight against the gale. Trask slowly sat up gasping and shaking from shock and terror.

On wobbly legs I walked slowly to the body of the Jedi. She was quite dead, the emergency panels had cut cleanly through her torso. Everything below her breasts, laying on the deck at my feat oozing blood. Her severed right hand still held her intricately designed silver and gold Saber hilt. I bent down on reflex and picked up her light saber. Gently pulling it free of her still disturbingly warm yet lifeless fingers. It was made of a silvery metal with golden filigree wrapping around the hilt in an intricate and delicate pattern of vines and leaves. _I you had just the smallest will to live… Half a second and you would have survived!_ The thought filled me with a burning frustrated, anger at the injustice of it. But more than that it was her weak willed acceptance that truly burned in my gut. Making me feel almost light headed for a moment with it's intensity. On an impulse I slipped the Saber hilt into a pocket on my thigh and with a last look at what was left of her, I turned and walked back to Trask.

"What were you doing?" he asked still shaky.

"Paying my respects." I said flatly my voice sounding strange to my own ears, the effect being made worse by the slight distortion of my helmet speakers. Grabbing his forearm I pulled him along after me, out the starboard hatch and down the corridor to the first junction.

Turning left I hit the hatch release on the wall and waited. A loud chunking sound mocked me from within the inner workings of the bulkhead, but otherwise nothing happened. I sighed the feeling of frustrated anger blooming up in my chest again, hotter than before. _This really just is not my day._ I pulled the interface cable from my wrist comp and plugged it into the socket just below the hatch release. I then spent a few tense seconds looking for the override command, my blood pounding in my ears and a feeling of increasing urgency building up inside me.

By the time I found the command I was so wound up that I slammed my finger down on it and almost cracked the screen of my wrist comp. Another loud chunking noise followed by an unnerving grinding noise and the hatch cycled, sliding slowly open.

At the same time a hatch to our right slid open to reveal a tall bald man in full black battle armor, with a grey pallor to his skin and tattoos on his scalp. He smiled exposing sharpened K-9 teeth. The saber staff in his hand activated the duel blood red blades sliding out as he spun it lazily around himself advancing on us.

I grabbed Trask and yanked on his arm trying to pull him after me through the hatchway. But Trask resisted with surprising strength. He jerked his arm free and drew his sword with a grim smile.

"Trask don't be stupid we can't fight that guy we need to go!" I said my voice booming out of my helmet speakers loud and tinny in the corridor.

"I know" he said simply smile broadening "Get to the escape pods. Live to fight another day." With that he pivoted slightly and straight kicked me in the chest hard enough to send me stumbling back several feet. Before I could run forward though he drew his heavy blaster and shot the door controls. The last thing I saw of Trask Ulgo was his wide smile as the hatch slammed shut with a loud grinding 'Bang!'

"Damn it Trask we could have made it you cowered! I didn't ask you to do that!" I growled the fury and unexpected feeling of loss almost choking me for a moment. With a vicious curse I slammed my fist into the bulkhead, then turned and ran down the corridor heading to the escape pods.

The corridor curved at a 90 degree angle, as I rounded the bend I ran smack into 4 Sith troopers standing about weapons at rest, against their shoulders or barrel against the floor and used as a hand rest of sorts. I didn't slow, drawing a blaster with one hand and a Vibroblade with the other, I bellowed a wordless war cry of rage and loss, the sound echoing down the the corridor with tremendous volume. I fell on them blind fury driving me to destroy these monsters, utterly and completely. The first two were so startled by my appearance and the volume of my helmet speakers that they froze solid. I cut them down barely breaking stride. The 4th man yelped in fear and turned to run. He went down with a couple quick shots to the back slamming into the deck blaster rifle spinning away, as he slid down the corridor carried by his momentum. The 3rd pulled a blade and swung hard for my neck. I blocked the strike with my own blade then put two quick shots into his left knee. As he fell clutching at the wound and screeching in agony, I whipped my Vibroblade forward and sunk it deep through his neck the point gleaming a bright, vibrant, red as it exited out through his spinal column.

As I yanked my blade free of the last man's throat my wrist comp buzzed loudly. The icon for an incoming communication flashing on the small screen. I whipped my sword down quickly, most of the blood sliding off and spattering to the deck at my feet, slipped it back into its scabbard and punched the icon. A small face appeared on the screen. A brown haired, brown eyed man in his late 20's or early 30's looked out at me with a look of surprised relief plain on his face.

"Soldier are you a member of the Endar Spire's crew?" the little man asked his voice coming through loud and clear in my helmet speakers.

"Sergeant Rorick Jager Republic special forces, are you Carth?" I responded as I started moving down the corridor again.

"Yes Lieutenant Carth Onasi Republic Navy, how close are you to the escape pods?"

"In the corridor just outside the Evac station." said coming up on the hatch to the Evac station as I spoke.

"There are two Sith heavy's in the station and 6 in escape pod block Alpha" he said typing into the station console he was using.

"I'll be there shortly." I said and smacked the hatch release both blasters drawn and ready.

The hatch slid back with the customary 'chunking' noise and I stepped in firing quickly putting 4 shots into both men before they had even raised their weapons.

"Hey wait there is an easier way." Carth's voice was loud in my ears as I approached the second hatch.

"Whats that?" I asked looking down at the wrist comp.

"If you have any skill with computers you should be able to over load the power coupling in the next room that will fry the Imps for sure." he said grim satisfaction in his voice.

With out responding I quickly plugged my wrist comp into the terminal next to the hatch and looked for the coupling in the ships diagnostic directory. Once I found it I uploaded a simple program I bought from a Slicer friend. The program transferred all the power with in this section of the ship and ran it all through that small coupling. In less than a second it overloaded and blew. Arcs of electricity flying out of the wall and slamming into the troopers instantly, leaving huge blackened scorch marks everywhere they touched.

I watched this happen through the security cam feed, as their bodies jerked about and writhed in agonizing death. A dull feeling of satisfaction slowly bloomed in my gut, despite the anger and loss I felt at losing Trask.

Once the electricity abated I opened the hatch with a command from my wrist comp and quickly moved through the room passing the empty escape pod berths, to the far bulkhead and hatchway that opened up to Beta Escape Pod Block. Just as I reached the hatch the slid open to reveal Carth standing blaster in hand watching me warily.

He looked me up and down taking in my high quality gear, before focusing in on the large duffles slung over each shoulder his eyebrows rose but when he opened his mouth he didn't mention them.

"We need to go. More Sith are on the way and I have the main computer set to scuttle the ship as soon as we launch everyone else is gone already we are the last ones." he said heading back down the line of pod berths to the last one in line.

I didn't say anything I just nodded, clambered into the tiny pod bumping into every surface and catching my bags on something, I yanked lose and sat down in the first chair I came to. It also happened to be closest to the rear hatch of the 4 passenger seats. I strapped myself in the bags still on my back. Waiting patiently for Carth to get up front into the pilots chair.

He climbed in after me with considerably more grace and slid past quickly making his way to the front of the pod. He slipped into the pilots chair and started flicking switches and pressing buttons with one hand, while getting himself strapped in with other. His movements were quick, sure and confident. He obviously knew what he was doing, so I settled into my seat and relaxed waiting.

I leaned back and closed my eyes, feeling the little pod come to life around me. Small vibrations shivered through me as its engine powered up. Then suddenly a terrific force slammed me back into my seat like a Ronto had just sat on my chest. Black spots swam before my eyes and the last thing I saw was the vast blue and grey disc of Taris sliding across the main view port. Then with a feeling like relief I fell gratefully into the blackness...


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter One**

Carth Onasi punched the primary emergency launch release on the instrument panel in front of him. Silent alarms were flashing red all across the various screens and read outs. _I really shouldn't have waited for this guy._ He thought to himself feeling guilty as soon as it crossed his mind. _No I have never left a man behind and I'm not about to start now. Even if the guy creeps me out._

Then the pods main engine ignited slamming him back against his seat, black spots played across his vision for a few seconds before clearing slowly. He looked down at the instrument panel, watching the count down in the top right hand corner of the primary readout display.

"Brace yourself back there it's going to be rough." he shouted back to the Sergeant when the count down hit 10 seconds, trying to make himself heard over the noise of the escape pod. The Endar Spire exploded with the force of a nuke. They were less than 200 kilometers away from the Ship when it detonated.

The shock wave smashed into the little pod with enough force, to instantly collapse its weak environmental shields and slam it on it's side, before starting a slow spin. The blast had increased decent velocity by a little more than double the recommended speed for an atmospheric entry. The battle had also forced the Endar Spire closer to the planets atmosphere than he had originally thought. They were already through the planets Exosphere and the friction of the Thermosphere was causing the tiny pod to heat up at an alarming rate. Flames almost instantly covered the transparasteel view port leaving him completely blind, unable to see anything beyond the writhing inferno. His hands flew over the vibrating control panel trying desperately to stop the slow spin the explosion had forced them into.

After almost a minute of watching the temperature gauge climb higher and higher toward critical failure. Along with flames getting more and more violent outside the view port, he gave up with the automated course corrections and slammed his hand down on the Manual control release. Yanking the stick out from under the dash, he lifted it up and locked it into place, desperately fighting the slow deadly spin and hand numbing vibrations coming through the stick.

Another minute and he had actually succeeded in leveling them out. Finally getting the pod steady. The only problem now was speed. They had slowed alot during the spin. But they were still heading down at 167% of safe velocity. Whats more, the pod had become so hot, slamming down through the Thermosphere sideways that the hull was starting to warp and melt.

He didn't have any choice he had to decrease the friction. Grinding his teeth with determination Carth tipped the nose down just a few degrees. Their speed picked up immediately but the hull temperature stabilized. He sighed with relief and smiled.

"Good girl you can get us down there, you just got to work with me." he said activating the reverse thrusters at 5% to start gradually slowing their decent. The mildly vibrating stick instantly became an angry writhing snake in his hand. He grabbed on with his other hand to avoid losing it altogether and fought the tiny pod for control as they shook and rattled their way through the last of the Thermosphere.

"Ok now what did I just say, huh? Just work with me now girl and we will all get out of this in one piece." It was the wrong thing to say. The moment the words left his mouth, the shaking became so bad he thought he might lose a few teeth to it. The stick jumped around with such force in his grip that his knuckles slammed into the control panel painfully, over and over again.

'CLANG!' the sound came from below Carth's feet and he looked down at the floor gaping.

"No! No! No! Don't you dare!" he yelled out loud at the escaped pod, as the deafening 'CLANG!' rang through the hull again. He quickly tipped the nose down another couple of degrees trying to reduce the drag, while at the same time turning up the reverse thrusters to 15%. The shaking got even worse but their air speed and temperature did drop slightly and he smiled feeling triumphant.

"That's it baby hold together just another few minutes I knew you wouldn't give me to much trou...!" he was cut off abruptly when he heard the 'CLANG!' again louder than before. Then a loud 'THUD!' beneath him. A shrill tearing sound and another softer 'thud'. A large object of unknown purpose and importance, flashed past the view port with a subdued "Clanging" noise as it smashed into the top of the pod on it's way to lonely freedom.

For a moment nothing happened they were still headed down. The pod was still shaking badly, but their speed was steady and the temperature was dropping slowly. Then almost every screen on the instrument panel flashed with warning lights and the pod slewed sharply to the side. Alarms shrieked as the temperature started climbing again and shaking intensified to the point he could barely see the readouts at all. The violent bucking of the pod slammed him back and forth against his crash webbing.

In moments like this where the probability of survival was slim to none there was really only one thing to say.

"Shit." The word came out in a calm matter-of-fact sort of way that one would use to comment on the weather. He slammed his hand down on the emergency flaps and fought slewing with all his skill, experience and determination. Desperately trying to slow them down and keep them steady. Just a few more minutes, he just needed another few minutes then they would be down. He kept his mouth shut however. Afraid if he said anything else, the damn thing would crumble to dust, just to spite him.

The moment the flaps opened the pod jerked and shuddered so hard. He thought for sure that they had been ripped off the hull. But the screen in front of him said that they were still attached, though two of them were damaged and unable to be moved. Despite that their desperate free fall slowed and steadied. The temperature of the hull dropped rapidly and the flames covering the view port receded.

Beyond the transparasteel he could see the vast city world sprawling below. Hundreds of towering skyscrapers poking up above the spotty cloud layer. Every one of them had a softly curved peak reminding him of Gigantic loaves of bread. They glittered silver and gold in the evening light and he could see why this place had once been called 'The Coruscant of the outer rim.' Combined with the setting sun in the far distance glowing a soft red-gold and the vast ocean to the west shining with a deep amber light, the sight took his breath away.

For what felt like a long time he just sat and watched as the city swelled up in the view port, a strange feeling of calm flowing over him. The moment past however and he was very aware of the aforementioned massive skyscrapers becoming quit large in his view port. He adjusted their course aiming for one of the upper city Pedwalks. Setting the reverse thrusters to maximum Carth brought them down as carefully as he could.

They smashed into the Pedestrian Walkway hard enough to throw him forward and smack his face into the console. The harness no doubt leaving bruises across his chest from the massive force. They slid forward a good 150 meters grinding a nice shallow trough through the Duracrete of the Pedwalk. Pedestrians screamed and leaped out of the way. Some of them clutching strange feathery 'dog-bird' looking animals as they flashed past.

When they finally ground to a stop, ears ringing and sore in places he hadn't felt in a long time. He couldn't bring himself to move right away, he sat there panting with both fatigue and shock. Carth could feel hot blood dripping over his upper lip and down his chin. He wondered idly if he had broken his nose, as he tried to hit the release on safety harness. His hands were shaking so badly that it took him 3 tries to finally get it to release. The pod was tilted at a forward angle and he slid forward boneless and collapsed against the console.

He lay there for a moment trying to catch his breath and steady himself, dimly he wondered if his passenger was still alive. With a sense of unreality he realized that the sergeant hadn't made a sound the whole trip down. He could have been injured in the fighting on board the Endar Spire and just been to hopped up on adrenaline to notice. If he had been losing blood this whole time then he could very possibly be dead already.

Concern for a fellow soldier finally got him moving, he turned slowly and struggled his way back toward the man, the tilted deck beneath him forcing Carth to half walk half pull himself forward, using anything he could get a grip on.

The man was only a couple inches taller than Carth himself, but thickly built and very heavy. Large arms and shoulders bulged under his combat armor. Carth tried to shift him back and forth looking for wounds but it was hard to tell in the red light of the escape pod. Black blood splattered the man quite heavily but it was hard to tell if any of it was his.

After a minute of examining the Sergeant, Carth finally noticed the make of his battle armor, and decided he was probably not, badly wounded. The Sergeant was encased in very high quality gear. It was Mandalorian combat armor. The suit alone was probably worth more than Carth made in a year on a Lieutenant's salary. More important than it's price however was the fact that it was made with pure Cortosis, one of the strongest and most energy resistant metals in the galaxy. The stuff could stop lightsabers, unless he had been hit buy a speeder at high speed for fell off a cliff he would probably live. His weapons were of equally fine quality, the blasters in the holsters on his thighs were Mandalorian heavy blasters. Those things were so powerful that a fully charged power cell would only give the shooter about 20 shots, but each one would burn through up to 10 centimeters of solid durasteel. Where as his own modified Blastech E-55's gave him about a hundred shots per standard power cell, but fat chance of making it through more than an inch of durasteel.

A siren broke him out of his contemplation abruptly, it was soft a long way off still. But he could hear it, the Sith knew where they were, and they were coming. Bracing himself with one hand he reached forward and shook the man's shoulder trying to rouse him, nothing. Carth tried again shaking harder. The Sergeant was completely limp. He drew one of his own blasters and smacked the butt down on the man's helmet, once, twice, three times. Not even a twitch.

Giving up, Carth holstered his blaster and moved past the comatose soldier pulling himself up to the hatch at the back of the escape pod. He braced himself, hit the hatch release and pushed it open, grunting with the effort. He found himself looking out at a mostly deserted Pedwalk only the bravest of souls had stayed to see what was happening. The rest had bolted for the nearby buildings in search of shelter from whatever 'doom' was no doubt about to befall the area.

Of the half dozen or so people that had stayed only one looked to be of any use. A tall straight backed human man in his late 50's. Though he was obviously past his prime with almost completely silver hair he still had the posture of a soldier. Carth thought for a moment looking the man up and down wondering what he should do. Then with a deep breath to steady himself he made his decision and called out to the man.

"I'm Lieutenant Carth Onasi Republic Navy, I have an injured man here will you help us?" He waited watching the man. If he was a former Republic soldier or officer, the man would most likely come help. But if he was from the Tarisian military or even worse a former Sith, it would have effectively doomed them both on the spot.

The man looked Carth over appraising him carefully for a long moment, all the while the siren in the distance was getting louder, making Carth's blood run cold.

"Sergeant Collin Vakris Former Republic Marine Corps." The man called back, before quickly jogging over and clambering up into the rear hatch of pod with surprising speed and dexterity.

"Thank you Sergeant I appreciate your help." Carth said leading the man back down to his unconscious companion.

"Don't mention it Sir, what do we have here?" sergeant Vakris asked moving down and taking a position on the other side of the unconscious body.

"Not sure, I don't think he's dead or even seriously wounded but I can't wake him." Carth replied, getting sergeant Jager under the left arm. Vakris just nodded and took the other arm with out speaking.

Together they disengaged the harness and dragged him to the lip of the pod. Carth jumped down and took hold of his shoulders as Vakris gently slid him out. The dead weight of Jager was to much for Carth and he fell back landing hard on his backside the soldier slumping peacefully on his legs undisturbed.

"You owe me big time for this Bub!" Carth growled at him, his eyes watering from the pain in his ass.

Vakris dropped down after Jager's limp body. Bending down he took Carth's hand and helped him out from under the surprising amount of dead weight. Carth immediately grabbed at one of the straps over Jager's shoulders trying to get the extra weight off so they could carry him faster. Vakris intervened on behalf of the gear bags however. Smacking his hand away.

"No time for that Sir we need to move now!" With such an eloquent defense Carth had no choice but to leave the bags where they were and take the other arm. Alternating brutal yanks and sluggish pulling, they made it inside just as the imperial speeders came into sight. Carth grumbling increasingly vulgar expletives the whole way. The sleek silver metal of the Sith speeders shining in the last of the evening light, as they spotted the crash site and zipped down toward it with dangerous speed.

Carth and the Sergeant paused a few steps inside the main doors panting with effort. The main circular hall they found themselves in was large and well lit with bight white lighting panels set into the ceiling every few meters. The walls were made of painted Duraplaste smooth and white. The whole place had an impersonal almost abandoned feel to it. Like the only reason everything was relatively clean was because no one had come through there in a long time.

Vakris stretched arched his back and looked at Carth a thoughtful look plain on his face. He tapped his bottom lip with his index finger for a long moment before seeming to make up his mind.

"You can't stay with me, or anyone connected to the Republic. That's the first thing the Sith will try." he paused for another moment then a grin split his face.

"I know what to do, help me with him." he said leaning down and taking hold of a limp arm.

"And what's that?" Carth asked following suit.

"We will hide you in plain sight." Vakris said giving Carth a satisfied smile.

He led them through the tower and down two levels. By this time they had got the sleeping soldier up off the floor at least one arm wrapped over each mans shoulders as they carried him. When the door opened and they stepped off the turbo lift Carth saw that this level was much more lively. The first thing he noticed was the smell, something sweet and spicy drifted to him on the air making his mouth water. How long had it been since he had eaten last? Other smells assailed him as well, sweat from a number of different species, numerous types of alcohol, and above all that indefinable miasma of scents that just meant 'People'.

After only a couple of steps three children came rushing past screeching at each other in glee. Two little Twi'lek girls both with dark green skin, and a human boy. They went rushing off down the hall making enough noise to wake the dead and trying their damnedest to kill each other. The punched kicked and bit each other until the little boy, who been getting by far the worst of it screamed like a demon Banshee, plowing into the both of girls sending them all rolling to the ground. There the tide turned against them, they were faster then the little boy but he was much stronger and after just a few moments he had them both at his mercy. He sat astride one of the girls chest pinning her arms by her side while the other one he had around the stomach from behind.

Carth couldn't help but snort with laughter at the respective looks of, Utter triumph and Furiously Impotent Rage.

Vakris led them down the circular hall in the opposite direction of the three little whirling dervish. Carth still fighting back bursts of mirth.

The hall was lined on either side by large powered doors every few meters. Some of these were open revealing small apartments. Most of them in pretty bad shape, grimy and disorganized. Some of them seemed to be small shops or what he assumed were restaurants of some kind. Aliens of all shapes and sizes lined up shouting food orders at hassled cooks who stood behind huge Wok's. The smell of roasting meat saturating the air as they pasted. All sorts of species seemed to live down there. Devaronions, Twi'leks, Rodians, Ithorians, Zabrak and a number of others but something struck Carth as odd. At first he couldn't put his finger on it, but then as Vakris stopped to ask a couple of Devaronions something in a strange harsh tongue. It hit him. Out of all the talking, shouting, and singing he heard as they made their way slowly onward. He didn't here any Galactic Basic. Not only that he and Vakris seemed to be the only Humans down there as well, except for the little Pride Demon, they had seen at the entrance when they first arrived.

He didn't say anything however, he was to exhausted to think about it right then. The man between them was heavy with armor and weapons not to mention the to large bags still strapped to his back. Gods only knew what was in those bags. Though Carth had a sneaking suspicion that it was probably some sort of raw ore, or perhaps just bricks. He had also fought a number of Sith making his own way to the escape pods during the battle aboard the Endar Spire. That along with the nerve wracking flight down to the planet. If they didn't find some place to rest soon, Vakris was going to be dragging them both along.

Fortunately Vakris stopped after only another few meters and turned to one of the large doors on the outer wall. He pulled something small and cylindrical from a pocket in this pants and stabbed it into the wall next to the door. There came a whirring sound behind the door followed by a soft 'click' and the door slid almost silently open.

Inside the apartment was small and spartan with no decorations to speak of. The north facing wall directly in front of them, consisted of floor to ceiling windows. A large view screen sat in front of them, with a plain dark blue-grey sofa placed in front of it. There was a table and 4 chairs in the left hand corner closest to the windows. A workbench sat across from the table pressed up against the east wall, tools lined up on its surface. But what completely captured Carths full attention were the bunks. Three sets of double bunks, sat against the west wall. Lined up headboard to foot board stretching the full length of the large square room. Military style and only just big enough for one person. In Carth's exhausted mind they looked like the most wonderful things he had ever seen. It didn't even matter that there wasn't a refresher, as long as those bunks didn't collapse on top of him he would be happy.

 _Even if they did I probably wouldn't notice until morning_ _._ Carth thought with a sudden snort of slightly hysterical mirth. Wordlessly they moved the unconscious man over to the bunks and lay him down on his stomach. Vakris grabbed his legs and maneuvered them up onto the bed then together they pulled the packs off his shoulders and let them drop to the floor feeling heavy metal objects clank together inside them. _Ha I was right!_ Carth thought to himself as he collapsed down on the other bunk, sleep already pulling at him.

"I can't stay."

Carth peeled one eye reluctantly open to look at the older man, who was digging in his jacket pocket.

"I also can't come back here ever." he said pulling out a small silver card.

"No no I'm not going to take credits from you. Not after everything else you have done for us." Carth reluctantly stood and motioned him to put the credit chit back in his pocket.

"Yes you will." Vakris said with a look that would brook no argument. "I don't need it, I have friends and family that can help me out. You have no one and nothing but an unconscious Spec Ops grunt and a couple bags full of weapons."

Carth wanted to argue, feeling terrible for even thinking about taking the money, but the sergeant was right. If he was going to find Bastila and get off this planet without getting killed or captured he would need credits… probably a lot more than Vakris had to offer. Swallowing his pride and distaste he nodded.

"Thank you Sergeant."

"You are welcome sir. And don't worry about it I'll be fine, just worry about taking care of yourselves." he said handing over the chit. "You also might want to get him out of that armor and make sure he's still alive." Carth put the chit in his pocket and nodded.

"You're probably right. I have never seen anyone like that who wasn't either dead or close to it." He looked over the big man laying on the bottom bunk closest to the table. _He's probably dead, or dying. Damn I could have really used the help._ More than anything though Carth hated the idea of losing a man under his command. It never get any easier to watch fellow soldiers die. Especially when you were responsible for their lives.

"Now you should be safe here. The Tarisian Security forces almost never come down here. The Sith will make it down here eventually but you should have a couple days at least before that happens." Vakris said moving over to the east wall of the plain square apartment. The wall was curiously bare. Nothing even touched it but the work bench in the corner.

Vakris touched a spot on the wall With quick motions he pointed out the refresher, almost hidden behind a blank grey panel that slid silently back into the wall. A small standing shower, a toilet and a sink, moving on he pulled another panel straight out of the wall to reveal a single electric burner and a small sink.

"That's all there is to this place. The Rodian three doors down owns this apartment and he owes me a favor so you should be fine for a while but not forever whatever you do try to do it quickly."

"We will thanks again Sergeant, you ah… you saved our lives." Carth said feeling a fervent pang or gratitude.

"Your welcome sir, take care." they shook hands again and Vakris turned to go, but then turned back remembering something. He handed Carth the small cylinder from his pocket that he had used to open the door to the apartment.

"There is an out fitter just across the pedwalk from this building she might be willing to 'Relieve' you of some of those weapons." With that he nodded once, turned and was gone out the door.

Carth had the uneasy feeling that he had somehow just killed that man, but it passed, he was far to exhausted to worry about anything right then. He locked the door then went and lay down on the other bunk falling into a deep sleep before his head even hit the pillow, still completely clothed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter two**

Darkness pulled me down, drowning me in an endless blackness. The whole world was nothing but an endless darkness making it impossible to think or even to feel. Every once in a while though a flash of light would come, almost blinding in it's intensity. When the light came for just the briefest of moments I could see flashes of the world around me. A cramped red cockpit shrieking and shuddering. Then falling back onto something hard and painful. I managed open my eyes I think, because I saw a sliver of blue sky and a massive red-gold tower. I heard voices and felt hands grabbing at me but I couldn't make out what they were saying. It felt like the voices were coming from a long way away. It didn't matter, darkness was already pulling me back down again.

Time seemed not to exist, it could have been a second or a week when bright lights flashed at me again. The high pitched sound of screeching children in the distance. Then it was gone. A minute or a year later the smell of meat roasting tickled my nose and the sound of voices pounded into my ears. I retreated back gratefully into the black escaping the noise.

Then everything was peaceful I was laying on something soft. A single lucid thought broke through. _What happened to my armor?_ Then I was falling back again the darkness flowing over me.

At some point I started dreaming, just flashes at first, bright flashes of colored light, great plains of tall green grass stretching away forever. A dark forest with massive trees that seemed to go up and up reaching into the heavens. The depths of an endless ocean dark water pressing in around me. A desert landscape, bright sand reflecting the light of a huge yellow sun. A barren valley with huge stone pillars; black as night stretching up hundreds of feet like the skeletal fingers of dead giants desperate to escape the red sands of their grave. Dozens more flashed past so quickly that I only spotted and image here or there. A war torn landscape piled with corpses. A blazing red star. Then everything went black again and I was free relaxed and at peace.

Slowly I floated forward toward something. I couldn't tell what it was, but I somehow knew that it was important. Instinctively I shied away from it, for some primal reason I did not want to see what was coming. The blackness started to clear around me like smoke fading away on the breeze.

I was floating above the massive bridge again watching the battle between the beautiful brown haired Jedi and the monster all in black. As they flashed back and forth across the bridge I couldn't help but wonder why I was seeing this again. I didn't much like seeing it the first time. The fight played out the same as before. This time when the explosion rocked the bridge however I was unaffected, floating peacefully watching with a sense of detachment. The detachment faded however when she walked over to the man in black robes. Laying still as death a large piece of charred metal protruded from his back, just under his right shoulder blade. The jagged edges sharp and deadly, the few spots untouched by charring gleamed dully in the flickering light of the bridge. I watched the blood seep out around the metal soaking into his robes with a feeling similar to panic starting to form inside me.

 _Don't turn him over just let him die!_ I screamed silently at the young Jedi. She didn't hear me of course, instead she slowly reached down to feel for a pulse at the man's neck. Her eyes sprang wide and she carefully rolled him over onto his left side. The mans robes were almost untouched long and menacing, with intricate red and purple patterns, that seemed to somehow move when looked at to closely. Even unconscious he seemed liable to jump up and break the young woman's neck for daring to touch him. She seemed to feel the same way, because her hands were shaking as she reached out toward the mask. She hesitated just a few inches away looking down on him. Her features twisted into a mask of anger, sympathy and guilt. Tears shone in her eyes, her hands our stretched as though she were waiting for him to sit up and embrace her. She closed her eyes, took a few slow deep breaths, then opened them and tried again, hands steady and eyes dry. Her long delicate fingers slipped beneath his hood and back behind his head, pulling at something I couldn't see.

 _No don't do it!_ I yelled soundlessly, trying desperately to reach out and stop her, to pull her away from him. But my arms were wouldn't move. They hung limply at my sides a feeling of dread and powerlessness had me around the throat choking me. It was so intense I thought I would pass out if that were possible. _Stop!_ _L_ _eave him be don't take that off!_ I screamed again but to no effect.

Whatever she was pulling on gave way with a soft click and she pulled it away. Beneath the mask was blackness, the infinite blackness of space, starring out at me from the depths were a pare of green eyes very much like my own. As I watched, the darkness flowed out of the robes, growing into a massive cloud. It engulfed the young woman, her lithe figure and light brown hair disappearing into the endless night. It grew and grew, the eyes growing with it, gradually turning a bright yellow until they looked like twin suns shining out of the void. It started toward me. Slowly at first making no sound. I screamed and tried desperately to get away but all of a sudden I was standing naked on the deck my feet sunk into the floor the durasteel plates molded over them holding me fast. I jerked and squirmed and screamed as the void came ever closer. Centimeter by centimeter with agonizing slowness, it crept forward savoring my fear and desperation. The bright yellow eyes shone out at me, the burning gaze seeing right through me, to examine soul; I was found wanting. The eyes smoldered with contempt and deepening to orange, then red and bursting into flame. The nebulous obsidian smoke surged forward consuming them. It flew forward engulfing me with terrible speed. My screams were smothered as the smoke filled my mouth and nose like burning water. Searing my throat and lungs as though I had inhaled lungs spasmed violently desperate for air, instead only sucking if more fire. Everything was burning pain, terror and impotent rage for what seemed like forever, surely I would have to die sometime soon?

Then it was gone I was standing alone on the bridge, a feeling of intense relief flooded over me and I started shaking. Bringing a hand up a hand I tried to wipe my forehead. But it wasn't skin I touched, it was metal. My eyes snapped open and I stared down at my hand in shock, it was gloved in black. I reached up and tried to feel my face again but encountered the same metal, covering me from forehead to chin. I spun to look at my refection in the bridges massive view port, feeling the weight of heavy robes spinning with me. There in the view port, gloved hands reaching up to touch the black and red mask of the monster that haunted this nightmare. My whole body trembled with shock, terror and revulsion. As I watched the hands came up and pulled the mask free. It fell to the floor with a loud 'Thud' hitting the deck with such an unnatural weight that it dented the durasteel plates. I stood there looking at a pale rictus mask of my own face twisted with rage and hatred, yellow eyes almost glowing in the dim light. It's mouth turned up into something that should have been a grin. Instead it made my blood turn to ice as a single word echoed through my mind. " _ **Revan**_."… _._

My eyes popped open and I saw a brown haired face floating over mine, hands were gripping my shoulders shaking me roughly. Without thinking I sat bolt up right and slammed my fist forward with all my strength catching the man right in the nose as he jerked away from my abrupt movement. The feeling of cartilage crunching under my fist was immensely satisfying.

"Son of a Bitch!" he yelled clutching at his nose as he lost he balance falling backward.

I leapt out of the bunk fear and anger urging me to fight, to kill the threat. As he fell one hand shot down to a holster on his hip with blazing speed and whipped up a blaster before he even hit the floor. He landed with a loud 'thud' flat on his back. Air whooshed out of him with the impact but the blaster in his hand barely wavered and inch, pointed straight at my center mass. I had already dropped into a crouch ready to spring into deadly motion.

Everything was completely still for a dozen heart beats as we eyed each other suspiciously. Our ragged breathing the only sounds to break the stillness. As the adrenaline started to wear off, my mind cleared and I remembered the man in front of me from the Endar Spire.

"Carth." I gasped out past a sore and parched throat. "Sorry about that. You um," I coughed trying to clear my throat, to little effect. "You startled me. Did I break your nose?" Carth eyed me suspiciously for another few seconds. Then making up his mind he holstered the blaster and got to his feet still holding his nose.

"Yeah, it sure as hell feels like it anyway." he said, voice muffed by his hand. Blood started pouring down his face in earnest now he was upright, dripping down to land both on his shirt and the carpet.

I straightened up relaxing my stance, as he made his way to a small table in the corner. I was sweating rivulets running down my back and under my arms. Like someone had poured a bucket of water over my head. I took a step back and sank down onto my bunk as Carth pulled started pulling items out of a bag that was sitting on the floor next to the table.

I looked down at myself and took stock of my physical condition. First, I was naked. Next I was thirsty, my throat was dry and raw. But more importantly than anything else at the moment; I needed to piss, like right that second.

"Hey Carth I don't mean to be indelicate. But ah, do we have a refresher?" I asked glancing around the room in desperate need.

"Yeah over there behind the panel just push it then slide it back." I was already heading over as he waved at the opposite wall. Once I got closer I noticed that a 2 meter high section of the wall bulged out slightly. Reaching out I pushed against the panel and it slid back disappearing into the wall with the softest 'hiss' of plastoid sliding against metal. I made it just in time and stood there for what felt like half and hour. The sense of pleasure and relief followed closely by an aching pain that went from mid stomach to groin as my stretched bladder deflated. _Gods I was really about to burst there. How long have I been out?_

I flushed, washed my face and neck, combed my hair back away from my face with my fingers, then went out into the apartment. Naked and dripping water onto the short carpet. Carth sat at the small table in the far corner carefully applying a Kolto patch across his nose. I moved over to the bunks and bent to check the bags I had brought from the Endar Spire. Plenty of weapons, grenades, Sith standard personal defense fields yet no clothes.

"I am really sorry about your nose." I said straightening up and trying my damnedest to keep from covering myself.

Without a word he reached down into a small bag at his feet. He pulled out a pair of dark pants and threw them to me. They flew at me with some speed unfolding as they went, finally hitting me square in the chest. Without bothering to look at them or ask if he had any underclothes in the bag, he did seem rather distracted with his nose after all. I yanked them on quickly, instantly feeling a bit more at ease. The pants, whatever they were made of felt good against my skin soft and reassuring. It's difficult not to feel ill at ease when your standing naked in front of someone you hardly know. I leaned quietly against one of bunks, silently observing.

Carth was sitting down at the table gently probing his nose over the Kolto patch. I watched him intently, wondering idly if he would try to set it himself.

He was a handsome man with angular bold features. Brown eyes looked thoughtfully into the middle distance from beneath dark brows. Deep concentration etched lines through those brows and at the corners of his mouth. He was of average height, broad shouldered with thick muscular arms and a narrow waist. He had a classic soldiers body. He was a bit thinner and shorter than I was. But lean and toned obviously kept in very good shape but focusing more on endurance than strength. A tight grey under shirt now spotted with blood, stretched over his torso outlining the muscles of stomach and chest. Leaving no doubt that this man was a not just a pilot, but a soldier as well. _A man always prepared, in both body and mind. Whether it be in space, ship to ship. Or on the ground in the mud and the blood, didn't really matter to him._ I thought to myself studying him closely. He also wore black utility pants covered in pockets. The same as the ones he gave me, and standard issue combat boots made of serviceable Nerf Leather. A holster hung from his right hip, holding a modified Blastech E-55 Blaster Pistol. The bottom strap of the holster was buckled around his upper thigh, the top strap buckled onto his belt. It's twin was strapped to the left hip. Everything useful and utilitarian, if he didn't need it then it didn't matter.

I was snapped out of my contemplation, as Carth took a few deep breaths grabbed his nose over the Kolto patch and yanking down, in one quick hard jerk. I heard the cartilage crunch as it fit back into place and winced in sympathy. He sucked in a quick breath through gritted teeth but made no other sound. I was impressed, setting a broken nose hurt 5 times worse than actually breaking it in the first place. His eyes were watering so badly, tears ran down his cheeks in a constant trickle that plopped softly against the table top. That's the worst thing about a broken nose it makes your eyes water so bad you can't see a thing. He took another couple deep breaths as he taped down the Kolto patch with a few strips of Tegaderm Film.

"Thanks for the pants." I said taking a seat across from him at the table.

"You're welcome." he said looking me over for a moment before bending down to grab a bag up off the floor. Digging around in it for a second he came out with shirt.

"Don't worry about the nose. I have woken up soldiers before. Hell I have come up swinging a couple times myself. You were just a bit faster than I expected." he said holding the shirt out to me. I nodded my thanks and took it from him.

"You thirsty?" he asked already getting to his feet.

"Yes very." I replied before pulling it on over my sweat dampened hair.

He got up and walked over to the wall directly across from me. Standing next to the door for the refresher, He reached up and slid back a panel an almost invisible panel in the grey wall, at about chest height. Inside I could see my armor and personal weapons stacked neatly inside. It was a large storage compartment about a meter high, by a meter and a half wide and maybe a meter deep. Now that I wasn't distracted I took a careful look at the rest of the wall. They weren't easy to spot, being the exact same neutral grey as the rest of the wall, but I could make out at least another two dozen similar panels. Ranging in size from about 15 by 30 centimeters, all the way up to, one on the other side of the refresher door; that was about a meter and a half tall by a meter wide.

"I figured you would probably like to know where your gear was." he said sliding the panel closed with a soft 'click'.

"Yes thank you I was wondering." I paused for a moment, Feeling very interested in the answer to my next question. "You did take me out of my armor. Why?" He looked at me for a moment a thoughtful expression on his face. But didn't answer right away. Instead he walked over to big panel next to the refresher door and swung it open to reveal the conservator. Inside I could see a dozen liter bottles of water and a six pack of kind of local ale or beer. He grabbed one of the bottles of beer for himself and a bottle of water for me. He came back to the table after nudging the conservator door closed with a foot.

"Thanks." I said excepting the bottle as he sat down. Carth braced the bottle cap against the edge of the table and smacked it with the palm of his hand. There was a soft 'chissshk' sound as the cap popped off flipping end over end off towards the bunks.

"I thought about leaving you in there." he said before taking a long drink. His eyes closed in pleasure, as the lowered the bottle to the table with a little sigh of contentment. "But after almost 10 hours with you still unconscious non responsive. I figured I had better get you out and check you over for injuries." he said with a slight shrug.

"How long was I unconscious for?" I asked feeling slightly alarmed.

"Almost 48 hours." he said in an impassive deadpan tone, like one would use talking about the weather. "Hell we thought you might have been dead there for a bit.

"Well thanks for saving my life." I replied grinning back.

"That I will except we had one hell of a time getting you down here, don't know if anyone ever told you this but, you are a damn deep sleeper." he said looking me over quizzically. "That sort of thing ever happen to you before?"

"No, not that I remember anyway. I don't normally sleep for more than a few hours. Two days, it was no wonder that I was dehydrated then.

Well I didn't find any wounds on you, quite a few scars, but nothing recent." He leaned back thinking. Then went on. "Did you get hit in the head or anything on the way down?"

"No I just felt tiered, and thought I would get some rest, since there was nothing I could do anyway."

Well that's true enough. To be honest there wasn't much **I** could do either. We made down there alive by luck for than anything else."

"No such thing." the words were out of my mouth before I even knew what I was going to say.

Carth snorted in derision, "Ha! Well if it wasn't luck that got us down in one piece I don't know what it was." He looked at me with congenial condescension, "Don't believe everything you heard from the Jedi back on the Endar. They like to think they are a lot smarter than they are. Coincidence, luck, sometimes the universe just gives you a good or bad hand. Nothing to do with 'The Force'." he emphasized 'The Force' with finger quotations and another snort.

"Yeah you're probably right about that, never mind. So how did we get down then? Sounds like it was a rough ride." I said trying to change the subject. A strange surreal feeling tugging at the back of my mind. Where had I heard that before? I didn't remember ever hearing the Jedi aboard the Endar Spire say it. After all I had only been briefly introduced to the members Jedi accompanying us, once when we were boarding the shuttle that would take us all up to the Spire. Only Bastila had spoken. " _Nice to meet you Sergeant."_ That was it, the other three nodded in unison then disappeared up into the shuttle. Leaving me standing there looking stupid, gaping after them one hand still out to shake. I hadn't seen any of them again until the fight on the bridge when the blond one died.

"You don't remember the flight down at all?" Carth asked distracting me from my reverie. An interested look on his face.

"Flashing lights and a shrieking noise?" I posed it as a question because I wasn't sure if what I had seen was a dream or reality.

"Yeah that's about it." he snorted with disgusted amusement.

He went on then and explained the events that had transpired since we escaped the ship. Almost losing control of the pod on the way down. Trying to wake me, then enlisting Vakris for aid. The mad scramble out of the little pod and into this massive residential spire.

"That was a lot of weapons and gear to carry by yourself. Couldn't bare to part with any of them huh?" Carth asked annoyance or amusement giving a wry turn to his features.

"Once we find someone to sell them to we will be grateful to have them." I said feeling suddenly defensive, "Am I the only one who realizes how difficult it's going to be to find a Jedi on a planet this size?" Heat flooded my face making me snap at him. "Without Credits and information it's going to be practically impossible! Why is it, that no one else seems to realize this!?" I was almost yelling by the time I finished, feeling an intense anger boiling up through me. I slammed my fist down on the table. The immensely satisfying 'boom' of flesh on thin metal calmed me enough to stop glaring at him and sit back in my chair trying to relax.

"I know, that was an attempt at a joke. You did the right thing, we will definitely need all the help we can get." he said in a calm contemplative voice as the studied my face intently.

For some reason that look made me suddenly feel very uneasy. I looked him over more closely trying to gauge him. He was obviously intelligent, you had to be if you made it to lieutenant and Helmsman of a cruiser. He was also quick and experienced, most of all though I was pretty sure that despite his easy going attitude he didn't trust me at all. Something about the way he looked at me. Like I was some kind of criminal he was trying to get close befriend, in order to gain my trust and get me to lower my guard. I didn't like it one bit, before that moment I had been still gathering my wits to some extent. I hadn't noticed anything wrong, but now I could tell he was very carefully watching me like I might turn on him at any moment and he was trying to decide if he should turn on me first. I didn't get it, if he was so suspicious of me why did he save my life? It didn't make any sense.

Carth caught on to my change in attitude instantly and one hand slid below the table not even trying to be subtle about it. I was a little surprised at that, he didn't know me that was true, and I did hit him in the face. But why would he feel it necessary to do something so blatantly threatening? Maybe trying to provoke me into doing something stupid? Whatever his reasons we needed to work together to get off this planet. There for I did what I was trained to do. Confront the problem.

"You don't trust me, why?" I asked bluntly watching for a response. His eyes widened slightly with surprise and I thought maybe a flash of approval but then it was gone. An impassive wall took it's place revealing nothing.

"Probably for the same reason you don't trust me. We don't know each other." he confirmed after a moments pause.

"True all we really know about each other is name and rank."

"Well I saved your life so you know that about me at least." Carth replied thoughtfully.

"True. But if you were this suspicious of me." I said motioning to the hand still sitting below the table undoubtedly gripping a blaster but. "Why did you even bother saving me? If you thought you were going to have to shoot me later?"

"I saved you, because I have never left a man behind and I'm damn sure not about to start now!" Carth said with such vehemence that I couldn't help but believe him. "Also, I wasn't sure if you were on the level or not. I'm still not sure for that matter. But until I get some proof one way or another, I'm not about to condemn you. But I'm also not stupid enough to trust someone I just met and no nothing about." he continued in a milder tone.

The moment his hand sunk beneath the table I tensed, muscles clenched and ready to shove the table into his chest with all my strength. At this point however I relaxed, I had a feeling that he was hiding something. But it wasn't something that directly concerned me. I felt like he was telling me the truth, or at least he wasn't trying to deceive me.

"Ok. I believe you. Now take you hand off your blaster and finish the story. What happened after we made it inside this tower?" Just like that the tension broke, we both relaxed back from each other letting the moment of danger slip away. A feeling of slight unease persisted in the back of my mind, but I ignored it and tried to get comfortable.

Carth relaxed back against his seat taking a deep drink of his beer, before setting it down and laying both hands on the table next to it. He told me about the upper City slums and the apartment. Both of us choking back laughter as he described the little trio of demon children that almost ran into us when we arrived. He told me about Vakris and the credit chit he gave us. Then he told me how he had gone out to get food and clothes. Taking the opportunity to do a little scouting while he was out and about. But he hit a language barrier with most of the inhabitants of this particular level, and didn't feel much like searching through the other levels for humans. Still he had managed to get some supplies with the credit chit Vakris gave him.

"That won't be a problem anymore." I interjected as he paused for breath. "I understand most primary alien languages, once I have a chance to meet a few people we will be able to learn more about the situation here."

His eyebrows rose at this, but after a moments speculation he shrugged and continued on with the story. He had stopped in and talked to the Rodian that 'owned' the apartment. Expressing with credits, a strong desire not to be disturbed by anything. For any reason. Gludor, the Rodian in question, let it be known, in horribly broken Basic. That for another installment later in the week, he would be happy to intercede on behalf of our privacy. The deal struck, Carth made his way to the main level, but he hadn't stayed long. There were Sith patrols all over up there and one of the Sith's special investigation squads canvassing the area interrogating everyone they even thought might be suspicious. Apparently beatings and shock batons were common. _Thugs,_ I thought with disgust. _Right out in the open like that no wonder you haven't found us yet._

His story concluded we sat thinking. Neither of us spoke, we sat quietly running the situation over in our minds for a few moments before Carth suddenly stood.

"I'm hungry. How about you?" he asked looking down at me.

"Starved."

"Alright I'll go check on things top side and get us some food." He finished off his beer then walked over to the bunk closest to the door. He pulled a Jacket off of the top bunk, it looked to be made of fine Nerf leather. Probably the most expensive thing he owned.

"I think I'll shower while your gone. I smell like a dead Bantha." I replied getting to my feet.

"I didn't say it." Carth called over his shoulder as he walked out of the motorized sliding door. I cracked a smile as it slid shut leaving me alone in the apartment. A flash of the wide brightly lit hall beyond the door freshly imprinted into my mind.

I took one of the new towels he had bought yesterday and headed for the refresher only stopping to pluck a razor sharp Beskar Dagger from among my gear in the storage compartment. I dropped the towel in the sink and set the dagger on top. Then stretched and turned to start the shower going. While the water warmed I stripped off the unfamiliar civilian cloths, running the problem of what to do next through in my head. Trying to work out what we had to do in order to find the Jedi. Either alive or dead, it didn't matter one way or the other I couldn't leave without knowing what happened to her. Once I found her, then I still had to find a way off this planet and back to Republic controlled space. Either with her alive. Or with the circumstances of her death to report to the Jedi counsel.

First off we needed credits, lots of credits _._ I considered that as I stepped into the shower feeling the warm water splash pleasantly over my grimy skin. My tensed muscles relaxing slowly under the downpour.

The weapons Trask and I managed to scavenge from the Sith on the Endar Spire would go along way toward that, but we had to find someone willing to buy them first. We would also need information this was a Sith controlled planet, under complete quarantine. The reason we had come here in the first place was to meet up with a small battle fleet outside the system and destroy the Sith blockade guarding this world.

That brought me to another problem, one I hadn't had time to consider until now. How did they catch us? They had interdiction vessels sure, the Leviathan, Malak's flag ship was equipped with an interdiction generator. But how had they found us.

Interdiction generators couldn't be activated in hyperspace, that's why the major trade routes like the Hydian Way and the Corellian Trade Spine had become so dangerous. A ship equipped with one on board would wait in a seldom patrolled section of a Hyperlane, generating a 'Mass Shadow'. That would trigger the emergency overrides in the Navigation Computer on the target ship. The NavComp upon detecting the Mass Shadow would shut down the it's own Hyperdrive to avoid a collision. Except there wasn't anything there. The Mass Shadows were exactly that, 'Shadows' and thus completely harmless. Well unless, you activated a mass shadow in an already strong gravity well, like a planets or a stars. But even then in order to actually be dangerous, it would take a lot more power than a normal interdiction generator used. But NavComps couldn't tell the difference. So every ship that passed by on the route is forced out into 'real space'.

However ships traveling in hyperspace aren't actually detectable by normal sensors. When a ship activates it's jump drive, it literally drops out of normal space time. Ships traveling in hyperspace leave a detectable energy trail but only after the fact. Even a slow, class Two hyper driver generator is still reaching speeds so fast that by the time your sensors detect the energy wake, the ship is already long gone. The maximum range of the sensors on a Hammerhead Class cruiser like the Endar Spire, was only about 50 Billion Kilometers at the very outermost limits. A class 2 Hyperdrive could cover 100 billion kilometers in less than a fraction of a second. A class one hyper drive like the Endar Spire's, could travel twice the distance even faster.

The only way to track a ship in hyperspace was to follow it in hyperspace. While it seemed simple at first glance it was actually a lot harder than it sounded. First of all one needed a Hyperdrive faster then they targets. But that wasn't the real problem, the catch was that Hyperspace travel was so fast you couldn't just point yourself after an energy wake and push a button, well you could but you might find yourself inside a star, or something equally as unpleasant. No you need a Navigation Computer fast enough to lock onto the energy signature, and plot a safe course after them fast enough so you could catch up and see where they were going, before they left you completely in the dust. The basic idea being; one heavily modified scout ship jumps in after an energy wake, catches up to the target and hides in it's energy wake while they scan the ship and check it's course. Then if it was worth pulling out to plunder, the scout would send the course and speed to an intercept vessel. The intercept vessel gets into place drops a Mass Shadow and waits. Very complicated, taking multiple ships, crews and a lot high quality, expensive equipment. Because of this, the only people known to do it were the Hutts and organizations like the Exchange. Navy ships on both sides, just stalked the the Hyper-lanes making routine stops.

The first method caught every ship that passed by, whether the interdiction team wanted it or not. Imagine a pirates surprise when they spend all their ill gotten gains on an interdiction generator. Only to pull out a Capital Class Navy war ship on it's way back to Coruscant.

I was pretty sure that we were the only ship caught in that spot, after all our route was almost a lightyear off of the established Hyperlane. I could have been wrong but I doubted it. Either we were being followed through hyperspace, unlikely but possible. Or, the more likely and much more disturbing option was that someone told the Sith we were coming, and where to catch us. If that was the case then we had a traitor somewhere in a very well informed position either in the government, Navy or the Jedi order. If not, the only option was that someone on board the Endar Spire itself, gave us up. Such a person wouldn't have to be very important at all, an officer of any rank could gain access to an encrypted communications line.

Then it hit me, that's why Carth was suspicious of me. Under normal circumstances a Sergeant wouldn't be given access to communications. But I wasn't a normal Sergeant. I was officially brought on to serve as an adviser to the Jedi. On top of that I was Special Operations which gave me much more leeway, as far as access to secure systems, and even the chain of command. If I had felt it necessary to protect the Jedi on board, I could have ordered the Captain of the Endar Spire to do just about anything. As long as the order wasn't considered a treasonous action. Or unless Bastila herself contradicted me.

So the Endar Spire is betrayed to the Sith and there I am on board with the power to send encrypted messages with out anyone knowing. On top of that I came on board at Dantooine with the Jedi. No one on board knew a thing about me. Of course he would think it was me. He knew the other members of the crew and probably trusted them implicitly. Then on top of everything else, I showed up at the last minute to escape. The very last survivor to make it off the ship. If I had been the traitor I could have easily met with a Sith on board during the fighting and received additional instructions, before making my way to the escape pods. The real traitor waits near the one of the Sith infiltration points for word of whether or not Bastila has been captured. If she has, great the traitor leaves with the Sith and the operation is complete. Or more likely the Sith kill him and leave his body to be destroyed with the rest of the ship and crew, leaving no evidence as to the traitors identity. If they don't get her however, the Sith send the traitor down among the rest of the Republic troops in hopes that they will lead him right to her. At which point the traitor contacts the Sith to give them her location and they come to collect her. If I had been in charge of such an operation it's exactly what I would have done.

Carth had been doing nothing but think for two days about the attack. He probably came to the same conclusion. Considering the first thing I did upon waking, was hit him in the face. I was surprised he hadn't just shot and been done with it.

Then again, Carth could be the traitor. He had access to the communications array, he also had access to the our route, he plotted the jumps himself… But I doubted it, it was possible but highly unlikely. Most likely the Sith would want someone less important as their agent. Someone they could control easily, a person who was just important enough to have access to the information they needed, but not important enough to draw scrutiny. Someone who wasn't noticed often and quickly forgotten. Either way we needed each other for now. No matter whether he was the spy or not, our goals were the same in either case. If Carth was the spy I would find out in due time, then I would take care of it. If not then I would need help to find the Jedi and get off the planet.

I relaxed back into the water, letting the problem go for the moment. It was warm and I was stiff and sore. Despite the fact that I had slept for almost 48 hours I felt drained. The dreams were still wandering in the dark places of my mind, nagging at me. For reasons I didn't understand they felt very important, like I was missing some crucial factor. Hidden just beyond my reach. Yet every time I reached for whatever it was, the thing just slipped away like some kind of greased eel. Wriggling through my fingers and sliding back down into the depths of my jumbled subconscious. Taunting me with some knowledge just out of reach.

Growling slightly as it slipped through my grasp once more, I leaned forward and thumped my forehead against the wall as though to knock whatever it was to the forefront of my mind. Of course it didn't work.

With a snort of disgust I let it go for now and rinsed out my hair. Carth hadn't picked up any soap. Still, the warm water felt good soaking through my thick black hair and massaging my scalp. I turned and let it pound down on my back letting it drive away the tension that had built up during last few days. Nearly dying in a space battle, losing a fellow soldier to a god damn Dark Jedi, then crashing on an alien planet blockaded by the Sith. It was bound to build up some stress.

A twinge of pain in my back made my right shoulder twitch uncomfortably. I tried to reach a hand back to scratch at it. But it was just under my shoulder blade and I wasn't that flexible. Shrugging away the discomfort I turned off the water and got out of the shower stall.

The tiny refresher cubical was hot and steamy, a thick layer of condensation covered every surface. After drying myself with the towel I wiped off the mirror above the sink.

Thin well defined, symmetrical features looked back at me. Bright, slanted green eyes under dark brows and high cheekbones. There was a scar over the left eye almost exactly in the center. It stretched long and straight, from a couple centimeters above the brow, to half way down my cheek. A Sith scout had gotten a lucky swipe in with a knife a few months previously.

There were other scars as well. Quite a few in fact, I had been in the Republic Military since I turned 18, almost seven years ago. A lot can happen in seven years, especially when you go from one brutal war directly into another. My chest and stomach was littered with them. Small puckered spots from shrapnel, thin lines from knife and sword slashes and a burn about the size of my hand on my left side; still puckered and red with recent healing.

There was another mirror on the door panel behind me. With a sudden burst of curiosity I wiped off that one as well to get a look at my back through the double reflections, maybe that twinge of pain I felt in the shower was an injury I suffered in the crash?

I twisted back and forth craning my neck for a few seconds trying to get a good look. Then my blood froze, turning to ice water in my veins. There in plain view on my back. Edges still an angry bright pink, sat a puckered scar. About 15 centimeters long and 3 or 4 centimeter thick. It also looked irregular and a bit jagged, it was in exactly the same place and the same size... The wound the dark lord suffered in my nightmare, was on my back.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everyone,

Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up but as you can probably see I had a lot to get down. That being said, I have edited this one twice, but I probably missed some stuff, sorry about that. I'm not very good at editing. If you enjoy it or hate it please review and tell me how I did, so I know how to improve in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, enjoy!

Chapter 3

I just stared into the mirror for what felt like a long time. It couldn't be real, they were just dreams. Vivid terrifying dreams, but only dreams. They couldn't be real, the idea by itself was just ridiculous. Impossible, completely impossible. But there was the scar, bright pink, puckered, and angry.

Finally I snapped out of it, ripping my gaze away from the scar and looking back at my face in the mirror. I was pale, my mouth was a thin grim line, surrounded by thick black stubble making me look even more ragged and almost unstable. _Why? Why is this shit happening to me? I have a job to do and I don't have time to be freaking out over scars!_ I glared back into the eyes of my reflection and slapped myself hard across the face. The sudden pain helped bring me back out of my head a bit. I did have things to think about, none of this made sense. I had heard about Bastila taking down Revan, of course I had, everyone had. But why did the brown haired young woman in my dreams look completely different from the Bastila I had seen on Dantooine. I also heard that Bastila had killed Revan in combat, but the woman in the dreams hadn't even came close to killing that Masked Monster. None of it made any sense and I was starting to feel like my grip on reality was becoming tenuous.

I shook my head and forced my mind back to the problem at hand. I had a mission to complete, I had never failed a mission before. I for damn sure wasn't about to start now.

Pushing all thoughts firmly out of my mind I turned on the sink, splashed water on my face and picked up the Beskar dagger I had brought in with me. It was slow going, but Beskar, or Mandalorian Iron, was the hardest known metal in the galaxy, making even Cortosis look like plain Durasteel by comparison. The dagger was more than sharp enough to shave with and after a few careful minutes I looked back into the eyes of a clean shaven face. The slow and delicate task, had done wonders for my state of mind, helping me order my thoughts and prioritize.

Get dressed, get something to eat, then get out there and do some recon. I needed information, a lot of it. There were really only two main question that I needed answered, but they were complicated with many different aspects that all needed answers. First question. What level of influence where the Sith using on the planet? How closely were they watching the populous, did they have the cooperation of the local government? Second Question. How well organized and well funded was the criminal element? Did they have ships? If so did they have slavers and smugglers? But most importantly which ones, if any, were working for the Sith.

The Sith didn't have Bastila yet. If they did, they wouldn't be trying so hard to find the survivors of the Endar Spire. That meant Bastila was either, free and in hiding just like Carth and I. Or she was being held captive by someone, most likely the Exchange. To find her and get off the planet we needed to learn how the criminal operations on the planet functioned and the extent of the Sith's presence. The easiest thing to do would be go strait to the local Exchange boss. He would probably know everything I wanted to know. The Exchange probably had a way to smuggle people and goods off world. But that was a risky business, the Sith could have already contacted the Exchange to enlist their help in finding us. So we couldn't contact them under our own identities.

I sighed and splashed water over my face again. I couldn't know what to plan for until I learned more about the situation on the planet. Standing there staring into the mirror wasn't helping anyone.

I dressed quickly and went back out into the tiny apartment. Carth wasn't back yet, I had no idea when he would be back and I didn't really want to go running around without any backup. So I decided to make myself useful and go through the weapons Trask and I had procured from the Sith on the Spire. I carted the bags over to the table, they felt a lot heavier now than I remembered being during the battle. I shrugged setting them down on the floor before unzipping them and looking inside. My hair promptly fell in my face. I looked around for something to tie it back with. Not spotting anything I ripped part of the hem off my shirt and used it to tie my hair back in a loose pony tail. One day I would listen to regulations and cut my damn hair, but today wasn't that day.

Sitting on top in the first bag was my Blaster Carbine. Pulling it out I checked it over quickly making sure it hadn't been damaged in the crash or when I was unconscious. It appeared in good order so I set it aside and starting pulling out other weapons and gear, examining them quickly as I went, to make sure they were in working order as well. Soon the table was stacked with blasters, grenades and gear. We had managed to take almost everything from the soldiers we fought on the way to the bridge. That all consisted of eight repeating blaster rifles, 15 small hold out blasters, 4 heavy blaster pistols, 8 flash-bang grenades, 4 Sith energy shields, 4 thermal detonators, a high powered Sith sniper rifle and 2 dozen standardized energy cells. What I was most happy with however were the 2 Heavy Repeating Carbines. I grinned with glee at those. Trask and I had taken them off the first two Sith heavy troopers I killed. Those things would be worth serious credits if we could find a buyer for them. I wanted to keep the stun grenades and the Sith Sniper but everything else would be worth more than enough to do whatever we needed while we were trapped down here.

Satisfied with the haul and feeling relieved that we at least had something to trade with, I headed over and pulled my gear out of the compartment in the wall and headed back to the workbench. While I was looking over my armor for damage, I noticed the long cylinder of the Lightsaber I had taken from the dead Jedi on the Endar Spire. Carefully I slipped it free of the pocket in my armor to get a better look at it.

The craftsmanship was incredible, the intricacy of the golden vines wrapping around the hilt was truly amazing. The Jedi had talent, but more than that she had obviously put her heart into this weapon. I began to feel a sense of calm as I turned it over slowly in my hands. With out pausing to think about it, I thumbed the tiny activator switch near the emitter. A dark blue blade sprang forth from the hilt, the legendary 'snap hiss' of the weapon was a welcoming sound that seemed both familiar and strange. Like the voice of an old friend you haven't heard since childhood.

Slowly I stood from the workbench and walked to the middle of the room holding the Lightsaber lightly in one hand, the same way I held my Vibroblades. I tried getting a feel for the Blade, but I was used to solid metal swords. The balance of the Lightsaber, although excellent, sill felt strange to me. Not having any weight behind a thrust or slash, just seemed off. Even so, I practiced some basic fencing moves and found to my surprise that once I actually started moving with the Lightsaber, it's balance and meager weight felt much more natural. Pleased with this I picked up the speed of my mock battle cutting through imaginary Sith in my mind. I went faster and faster whipping through attack, counter attack combos so quickly that I began sweating.

I lost myself in the exertion not thinking of anything. Just spinning back and forth across the room seeing imagined Sith fall before the onslaught. Heart beating fast, gasping for breath, with the thrill of my blood singing in my veins from the mock battle. But when I spun back to the door on my final lunge, instead of seeing a plain silver clad trooper. I saw a stunningly beautiful woman, long brown hair framed her oval, fine featured face. Sad, bright grey-blue eyes looked out at me from under long black lashes. She was disheveled, dirt, ash and spots of bright red blood spotted her rosy skin. Her formfitting, cream colored, combat suit, was torn, burned patches showed scraped, raw skin across her torso and thighs.

I stood dumb struck, completely unable to process what I was seeing. The tip of the Lightsaber hovered in the air just in front of her throat. She wasn't there, some part of my mind knew that for sure. But I could see her so clearly, as if she was truly standing there giving me a sad defeated smile. She opened her mouth as though to speak but a loud 'thud' sounded from the corridor out side and the moment shattered. In the blink of an eye she was just gone, as though she had never existed.

I extinguished the Saber and slowly turned back to the workbench. The whole thing had left me feeling distinctly disturbed. First the dreams now this, I was going mad. That was the only rational explanation, I had never experienced dreams or visions like these in the past, at least not that I remembered anyway. I was tempted to just sit there and brood in silence, but my training kicked in. In times of crisis focus on things you can change, ignore the things you have no control over. Shaking my head I placed the Lightsaber back in the pocket of my combat armor and went to work adjusting and fine tuning my weapons.

Bastila's eyes snapped open. _Revan?_ No not Revan, she reminded herself, _Rorick, Rorick Jager_. That was the new name the Counsel had given him. What was he doing with a lightsaber though, and where was he? She had seen him, as though he were standing before her, here in this dank, dark cell. She had been locked up in that tiny room for the last several days. It looked like an old storage closet that had been converted to a cell out of necessity. She looked around the cell for the thousandth time, cold bare, Duracrete walls. A metal toilet, sink and a cot with a thin mattress bolted to the floor.

If he was there on Taris did that mean he was still on the mission the Counsel had set for him? If he was, gods help the Black Vulkars. Revan might not have the force anymore. But she had a sneaking feeling that, he wouldn't be stopped by such a 'minor inconvenience'.

Revan had always been like a force of nature. No matter where he went, or what he did. The galaxy seemed to just bend itself to his will. Even without his memories, or the force under his command, she was sure that he would find her. The thought was at once, comforting and quite unsettling. On the one hand she was quite tiered of the cell and she needed to get back to the Republic. Every day she was out of the fight more people would die, without the help of her Battle Meditation.

On the other, Revan terrified her. Not just because he was a terrible force of evil either. Ever since she had saved his life back on that bridge, she had been connected to him. The sense of connection between them was, deep and strong. She could feel not only his surface thoughts, but also his emotions as well. He had such strong feelings, they pounded against her mind constantly, ever since he had regained consciousness after the Jedi counsel healed him. She could feel him even now a nebulous presence, somewhere in the back of her mind. Always being aware of another person, their thoughts and feelings. Not only made her feel like she was spying on him. It also came with a feeling of intimacy, she found deeply unnerving.

With the drugs in her system to keep her from using the force, she couldn't quite reach out and grab the thread of their bond. But she could still feel it there, deep in the back of her mind. A dim glow of him just at the edge of her perception. She concentrated trying with all her strength to find him again. He was there, but the touch was so faint all she could feel from him was a sense of deep guilt and anger. She couldn't feel anything else from him, the drugs were simply to much for her. All she knew for sure was, Revan was alive, and he was very angry.

She closed her eyes but instead of trying to meditate again she wrapped her arms around her knees, bowed her head and sobbed. It was all too much. Being a prisoner to these vile beings, if Revan didn't find her she would be sold to the highest bidder, she would become a slave. She would honestly have preferred to be turned over to the Sith, than become the property of the type of man who liked to own young women. Just the thought of it was enough to make her feel sick. She tried to rely on the force for strength, but with the drugs, she could barely feel the force at all. On top of all that, Revan was free, and she wasn't there to watch over him and make sure he didn't do anything terrible.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of soft footsteps coming down the hall outside. She tried desperately to reach out with the force to see who it was. But to no avail, she could think relatively well. But whenever she tried to reach out for the force, it was just out of reach. Like trying to grab smoke, she could see it in her mind. But every time she reached for it, the Force slipped through her fingers.

The footsteps stopped outside her cell and she could hear someone typing a code into the panel next to the door. A few soft 'beeps' later and the door slid back into the wall, revealing Brejik. The leader of the Black Vulkars, was man of average size, with a pinched rodent like face. Dark skin, close cropped black hair, mud brown eyes and the voice of a shrieking Kinrath. It all came together to make the ugliest, most unpleasant man Bastila had ever met.

He looked down on her with an obvious sense of sneering superiority, but for all the bluster she couldn't help but notice that he was staying well away from her, holding a very powerful stun baton. He was afraid of her, the satisfaction Bastila felt at realizing that fled immediately. Brejik was the type of man who wouldn't countenance the idea of being afraid of a woman. He would need to prove to himself and his men that **He** was the one with the power, not her. The truth of it was born out at once when he opened his mouth.

"So, mighty Jedi huh? Don't seem like much to me bitch." his voice screeched off the walls of her cell making her flinch. He misunderstood the movement and laughed delightedly, thinking that she was afraid of him. "Now, now no need to be frightened I don't plan on hurting you. Can't very well sell damaged goods." he said laughing.

"So that's the grand plan then? Sell me to the highest bidder?" she asked not quite able to keep the scorn from her voice.

Brejik was taken aback by the sudden show of defiance, but it quickly turned into anger. "Not very wise to mouth off at me girl." he growled trying for deep and menacing, he only succeeded at sounding like a dying cat.

The combination of his high pitched voice and the pitiful threat struck her as funny, she let slip a sharp laugh of derision before she could stop herself. It was a mistake. Under normal circumstances the idea of him threatening her would have been funny. But these were anything but normal circumstances, she was his prisoner and she was powerless while she was under the influence of the drugs. His face turned a deep shade of red and before she could say anything or even take another breath, he struck out with the stun baton. He moved with impressive speed and the point of the baton caught her in the ribs of her left side.

A powerful electrical current shot into her with such force, it made her whole body jerk and convulse with agonized pain. Brejik continued shocking her for a few seconds until satisfied that she had learned her lesson. Bastila noticed that when he finally broke the contact he was quick to step back away from her, but he didn't retreat to the door. Causing her pain had bolstered his confidence, made him feel in control. She was secretly happy for that, it would mean he wouldn't be so quick to hurt her again. As long as she could keep from laughing at him again of course.

"We have a number of buyers already lining up to purchase you, I must admit I was surprised to hear how much you were worth to some people." he said crouching down to get a better look at her in the low light.

"How much are the Sith offering?" Bastila asked trying not to let her fear show in her voice.

"Oh please, if the Sith found out I had you they wouldn't bother making me an offer. They would probably just bombard this whole section of the city from orbit. I'm smarter than that girl."

Bastila was honestly surprised to hear this. She had legitimately thought him that stupid. If he had enough intelligence to predict how the Sith would respond, maybe she could reason with him.

"Ok, let me ask you a question." she said and paused, when he just looked at her with slight curiosity she went on. "Do you want to be ruled by the Sith?"

"No. I despise the Sith." he said narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"If you sell me off to the highest bidder, you will be ruled by the Sith." Bastila said slowly and clearly, willing him to except what she said.

"Is that right?" he asked with a mocking grin. "Jedi are tough sure but if my men could take you down, I bet the republic will do just fine without you." Scorn was plain in his voice as he finished.

"I'm not important for my combat prowess, I'm a master of battle meditation, have you heard of that?" she asked trying to keep her voice level and calm.

"No, but let me guess your about to tell me that it's super important and your the only one that can do it right?" He asked with a knowing grin.

She just looked at him for a moment stunned. He thought she was lying, this brain dead moron thought she was trying to con him. Bastila growled with frustration and looked away to hide the sudden burst anger that roiled up inside her. Brejik laughed mockingly, assuming he had been right and caught her in a lie.

"Nice try girl but your not the first to try and talk their way out of the slave market." he leaned back against the wall and looked her over satisfaction plain on his face.

"Believe what you want." she shot back, the anger dying away to be replaced by a deep despair. "When are you going to sell me?" she asked in a cold hollow voice.

"Well I haven't decided yet." he said thoughtfully, as his eyes played over her in a fashion that made her skin crawl. "You see, the season opener is coming up in a few days. All the major players are involved of course and everyone has to put something into the pot, as an entry fee. Most people put up credits or their swoops if they don't have any other option. But my people are going to win this year. If I put you forward as the entry fee I wouldn't have to give up any credits. And I would get you right back since there is no way we can lose." He sounded distracted as he explained the situation, the look of grimy, lustful, interest getting more disconcerting by the second.

"So why aren't you sure? It sounds foolproof?" Bastila asked trying to distract him as he took a step towards her.

"It does, doesn't it." He grinned pleased with himself.

"So when is this big season opener?"

"In a few days, I'll have to find you something suitable to wear, when I put you on display." he sneered the lust flashing stronger in his eyes, obviously imagining something he found very appealing. Judging by the tiny bulge growing in his trousers. Bastila's eyes were drawn down to it and before she could stop herself she snorted with laughter.

Brejik looked down following her line of sight, his face turned purple with embarrassed rage. "Oh think it's funny do you." He shrieked at her.

Bastila knew what was coming there was no way out of the pain, so instead of trying to mollify him she went another route. "I was just wondering how long you have to look for it when you need to piss." she said and burst into unhinged almost hysterical laughter.

Brejik let out a wordless bellow of rage and charged forward. He slammed the stun baton into her stomach so hard that if the electrical current wasn't forcing every muscle in her body completely ridged she would have thrown up all over him. As it was she just coughed and gagged as she jerked and spasmed on the tiny thin cot. The pain was so intense that everything else fell away. The high pitched shrieks of Brejik fading away as the white hot agony burned through her body.

At some point she must have lost consciousness, because the next thing she knew, the pain was gone. She lay panting and shaking, face down on the cot. She could taste blood in her mouth and she felt as though she had been run over by a herd of Banthas. Where he had jabbed her in the stomach with the baton, felt like someone had ripped a hole into her with a dull spoon. She was so sore that breathing made her chest spasm with pain.

"Teach you, fucking cunt!" She heard Brejik say from somewhere by the door. His voice was gruff and raspy like he had screamed his throat raw.

Bastila was so exhausted and in so much pain that she honestly didn't care about him just then. But still something made her turn her head back to look at him out of the corner of her eye. He was panting for breath, hands braced on his knees. She examined him for a moment trying to collect her scattered thoughts and push the pain from her mind. Instinctively she reached for the dim glow of Revan at the edge of her perception. She was surprised to find that she could feel him much more clearly. A burning bone deep rage emanated him as she brushed against his mind. The feeling was so strong that she gasped involuntarily. Brejik's head snapped up at the sound and looked at her with suspicion clear on his face.

She looked at him for a long moment examining him, and comparing him to Revan. "Brejik," she said, her voice no more than a hushed whisper from all the screaming.

"What? You got something else smart to say bitch." He snapped but there was no real fire behind his words.

"Their is a man looking for me Brejik," Bastila paused to spit out a gob of blood onto the floor. "When he finds me, my advice to you, is run."

Carth found me there a quarter hour later, as I was tinkering with my Repeating Carbine. By reflex I spun in my seat the moment I heard the door cycling open. Carth had the unnerving experience of starring down the barrel of said Carbine for a moment before I recognized him.

For the space of that moment he thought I was going to fire, I could see it in his eyes. But I lowered the blaster and the moment was gone just as quickly as it had come. He relaxed and stepped into the apartment while I set the blaster down on the workbench and got up to help him with the food.

He had found some kind of roasted meat and noodle combination that seams to be found on every world with seedy food stalls. It was surprisingly good though and we sat at the table eating in silence, just looking at each other and thinking. I devoured the food, two days with nothing works up quite the appetite. While we ate I wondered if I should break the ice and confront him about the mole on board the Spire. But decided against it, if it became a problem I would deal with it. But for now I was itching to get out of the apartment and do some scouting. I glanced down at the wrist comp I had taken from my gear. 14:00 local time, still plenty enough time to get the lay of the land and start the search for information.

"So how is it up there, any changes?" I asked putting aside my desolated food carton.

"Not really, the Sith have moved on from the immediate area around the crash site. But they are still patrolling the Pedwalk and the surrounding area pretty heavily." he said setting aside his own carton.

"So probably not a good idea to go up there in full battle armor, huh?" I asked sitting back and glancing over at my gear, sitting at the base of the workbench.

"No probably not. Civvies and small arms seem to work Ok. They haven't stopped me yet." he said standing and taking the empty containers to the trash bin by the door.

"Well, I'm eager to get out there and do some scouting. If you feeling like going out again?" I said standing and heading for my boots.

"Yeah good for me I haven't been able to make much progress yet. So far all I've got is; a couple pods crashed in the Under City. But that is thousands of square kilometers..." he trailed off with a shrug.

"I have a few ideas. You been to the local Cantina yet?" I asked belting on my hip holsters.

"No not yet."

"Good. Whenever you are looking for information on a planet where you have no contacts. First place to go is always, the local Cantina." I said with a grin. I checked over my blaster pistols, made sure they were charged and slid them into my holsters.

But as I made for the door a sound came to me through it, a loud 'Crash' followed by a high pitched feminine scream. I looked to Carth, he came to the same conclusion I did.

"The Sith are finally searching down here." he said tone and face grave.

I felt rage boil up in my gut and a very different type of grin spread across my face. "Let's go welcome them to the neighborhood shall we?" My tone almost giddy with twisted excitement.

"Could make things a lot harder on us, if we don't keep our heads down." He said looking torn as another scream and a blaster shot sounded outside.

"You stay here if you want. I'm going to help these people." I said in a disgusted yet calm voice as I walked to the door. I understood his point. It was a good one, attracting attention to ourselves was a bad idea. But I was filled with guilt over the loss of Trask, to stay in the apartment and do nothing? Nope that just wasn't going to happen. More than that though, I was really, really angry. I wanted to kill something, and the Sith, well the Sith just needed to die.

Carth cursed behind me as I slammed my hand down on the door release and waited in mounting impatience for the few seconds the door took to slide open. Outside the smell food, sweat, and stale alcohol, assaulted my nostrils. But over all of that was the nebulous, indefinable smell of fear, thick and acrid on the air.

I turned right and headed down the hall at a brisk clip, following the sounds of sobbing and the thuds of metal hitting flesh. It only took a few seconds for the scene to come into view around the bend in the hall, but it felt a lot longer, hearing the cries of women and the gasping thuds of someone being beaten.

They stood near the main Turbo lift shaft. A Sith Captain, four silver clad Sith troopers and two Combat Droids.

"Where are the Republic spies?!" The Captain said in a bored voice as he checked his nails for grime. A young Twi'lek man was pinned up against the wall by two of the troopers while the third drew back his arm to smash into the poor kids face, for what looked like at least the dozenth time. The two droids had the man's Wife/Girlfriend and to young daughters, up against the opposite wall, the droids had deadly Repeating Blasters trained on them. All three of them had dark green skin gone quite pale with shock and fear.

I slowed to a quick silent walk trying to look nonthreatening with my head down looking at the floor, so as not to alert the droids to me as a threat. The five human Sith were too occupied with the beating to notice me as I quickly came up behind the group. The Twi'lek man started laughing as he spotted me. One of the silver clad Sith smashed his rifle but into the man's gut making him choke and throw up all over the Sith bastard. But he just leaned back laughing harder afterwards, almost shaking with it.

"Alien scum, all of them so unhinged that they laugh during a beating! I'm most likely wasting my time here, this one is probably already brain damaged. But keep going anyway corporal." The Captain said with sneering delight.

By this point I was almost at the droids just another few steps and I would be right behind the man. The Sith who had been thrown up on pulled off his own helmet, and was sick himself, all over his comrades silvery boots. While everyone was distracted I got right up behind the Captain. Ignoring the stunned looks on the girls against wall I pulled my blaster very quietly.

"He was laughing because he knew you were about to die, You Sick Cunt!" I whispered in the Captain's ear as I put my blaster barrel to his spine. The man froze holding perfectly still, with a sharp intake of breath. His men spun to look but I was between them and the Captain. They couldn't do anything but stand there and look stupid, as their weapons bobbed up and down again trying to decide whether to aim at me, despite the officer in the way.

"Now that I have your undivided attention." I said very softly so only the Captain could hear me. "You are going to order your men to drop their weapons and let these people go." He took a deep breath obviously for some kind of threatening retort, but I interrupted him. "Think very carefully about your next words. If I hear anything other than 'Drop your weapons,' I will kill you and take my chances." Something in my voice must have gotten across my seriousness because he didn't speak at all. He just motioned with his hand for the troopers to drop their weapons. When they hesitated, he made a furious motion with both hands and the blasters dropped reluctantly to the floor.

"Now I want you to say, 'The aliens are free to go." I said digging the blaster into his back.

"The Aliens are free to go." he said in a jerky breathless voice, as he started to tremble.

"Carth get them away from here." I called over my shoulder. But he was already moving, I saw him out of the corner of my eye taking the young woman by an elbow and motioning to the girls. His other blaster trained on the two combat droids as they stood impassively waiting for further instructions. At the same time the young Twi'lek man shrugged passed the two Sith that had been holding him and limped off after his family moving with surprising speed for someone so badly beaten.

"Ok they are free, you got what you wanted, now let me go." The Sith Captain said trying in vain to make his trembling voice sound commanding. "I don't know who you are but you really don't want the whole Sith empire hunting you for the murder and an officer." He continued sounding a little steadier, his confidence building as I said nothing.

"You shouldn't have spoken." I said in a deadpan voice, then shot him through the spine.

I was already spinning as he fell. The two droids activated basic combat protocols, when I opened fire and were already raising their weapons toward me. Time seemed to slow, just like it had back on the bridge. Everything seemed to be moving through thick sand. I could see every single imperfection in the droids plating as I brought up my own blasters with infinite slowness. In my peripheral vision I could see Carth, blasters in hand charging back down the hall towards us. The coattails of his jacket flapping slowly behind him as he brought up his own weapons.

My vision seemed to zoom in slightly as I took aim on the droids. Their durasteel Chassis coming into focus with startling clarity, every dent, nick and scratch easy to see as I depressed the triggers of my blasters. The two droids hadn't even gotten their own weapons more than a few inches toward me as I put two shots into each of them, one into each dull glowing Photoreceptor. As they started to fall I dove to the right, spinning as I went. Time seemed to start speeding up again as I watched the first man go down under Carth's fire and the other three dive after their discarded weapons. By the time I hit the floor on my side time was moving normally again, but it didn't save the Sith. Three quick shots into the closest man, only two meters away. The first shot hit him in the shoulder as he bent to pick up his Blaster. The next hit him in the back as the first forced him to spin sideways away from me, the last caught him at the base of the skull. He dropped like a stone as I switched my aim to the last man standing. As Carth put down the other, this one had finally gotten his Blaster up off the floor and was turning to face Carth. Mistake.

I lined my shot up carefully, as Carth's bolts burnt into the walls around him, I depressed the trigger. A perfectly circular hole appeared in the mans helmet, I could see the blackened scorch mark on the wall beyond, where the Blaster bolt had hit, after leaving his skull. The Sith stood for a moment then turned slowly to look at me before falling forward to 'Clang' loudly against the floor. That left only the captain. Laying flat on his back, vainly clutching the hole in his stomach and screeching like a banshee. I halfheartedly aimed and pulled off a quick shot, ending his undignified wailing as a hole appeared in the top of his head.

Afterward everything was completely still in the corridor, nothing moved except the small wisps of smoke, sliding up from blaster holes and scorch marks. I collapsed back, suddenly very tiered and gasping for breath. I could hear Carth gasping as well, then the sound of metal sliding against leather as the holstered his blasters and walked forward to survey the damage. His face appeared above me and his hand reached down. I took it and allowed him to help me to my feat, feeling my frantic heart beat slow.

"You are frighteningly fast you know that?" Were the first words out of his mouth, as he slowly scanned me up and down as if seeing me for the first time. "I have never seen speed and accuracy like that." He rested his hands on the pistol grips in his holsters as he looked around at the carnage. The smell of burnt fabric and flesh mingling with the stench of bladders and bowels as they relaxed into death, releasing their contents.

"We should gather their gear. Never hurts to have more." I said stooping to pick up a Blaster Rifle. But before I could do anything else Carth turned back to me a sudden look of confused revelation on his face.

"I take it back, I have seen speed like that before." He sounded confused and a little suspicious. "I have seen Jedi and Sith fight with that kind of speed."

The simple statement made me shudder involuntarily as I stooped to pick up another blaster. I ignored him, I couldn't think about it. The dreams came back to me in a flash, the jagged scar below my right shoulder blade haunting me. When I straitened back up I could see Carth readying himself to speak again and I cut him off.

"Reaction Implants, I'm Spec Ops remember." I was lying of course I didn't have any implants, never needed them before. I viewed them like any other tool, if I could get the job done without them, I didn't need them. After all you don't use a butchers knife to perform delicate surgery. That's what I was, a scalpel. I left the butchering to other people, with different talents. I could see Carth didn't believe me but he let it go and helped me gather up their weapons and gear.

"It's a shame about the armor." he said as we stood surveying the bodies.

"Yeah would have been nice to use for a disguise." I replied having felt the same regret as we worked. A full set of Sith armor would have made getting around the City much easier.

"You need disguises?" I deep voice in heavily accented Basic said from behind us, followed by a cough.

We turned in unison to see the young Twi'lek man standing there his arm over his girlfriend/wife's shoulder. He looked terrible, one of his eyes were completely swollen shut. The other was only a slit, barely visible past the swelling, in fact his whole face was puffed up to the point where he was almost unrecognizable. One of his Lekku had a large gash dripping blood down to the floor as it twitched with pain.

"Are you going to be Ok?" I asked as I bent to take a closer look at him. I could see that he was shaking, he looked like he was about to collapse.

"I'll recover," he said trying to stand straighter as the woman supported him. "We owe you our lives, if we can do anything to repay you, we will."

"Any idea what we can do with the bodies?" Carth asked looking at the man with deep sympathy.

"We will take care of them, we have ways to make them, disappear." He said with a note of grim satisfaction as he looked down at them.

"Thank you." I said truly grateful to the man, many would just run and hide, after an experience like what he just went through.

"It is the least we can do. If you need undamaged Sith armor, I have a couple suggestions." he said with a grim smile through the bruises.

He told us about another residential tower a few kilometers away that had been almost completely taken over by the Sith and was now in use as their primary barracks for the entire planet. They often held parties that lasted all hours day and night, some of the more ambitious or daring locals were invited.

"What's your name?" Carth asked when he had finished his explanation.

"Karn" he said simply then motioned to the woman who still supported him. "My wife Tylan."

"Karn if we succeed in our mission, it will save millions of lives." Carth said giving him the whole gravity of the situation. "The information you just gave us, and your help with them," Carth jerked his head back at the dead squad. "That probably just saved our mission. Not only we, but the entire Republic thank you. You will not be forgotten. Either of you."

"Yes thank you again." I said making a mental note to add their assistance in my report when we got back to republic space. Maybe I could convince my superiors to give them a reward of some kind.

We said our farewells and headed back to the apartment carrying the weapons and gear from the Sith. When I glanced back after only a few steps, inhabitants of the tower had already dragged off two of the bodies and two young Rodian girls were cleaning the area. Wiping away all traces of the conflict.

By the time we stowed the gear and made our way back, it was like nothing had happened. All the food stalls were open again and people were milling about, eating, drinking, talking, laughing. It actually made me feel good to see it. Even though the Sith were terribly powerful and evil, good people like these 'Aliens' they despised so much, could pick up their lives and move on. A little battered and worse for the wear maybe, but not broken, not defeated.

Carth and I made our way up to the main Pedwalk outside the building. For a moment I just stopped taking in the life of the city. Getting a feel for the people and the energy of it. Every large city has a life to it. You can feel it in the air, see it in the way people move, the way they talk to each other, even the clothes they wear. These people were well dressed, stylish with fine fabrics, many of them wore jewelry of some kind or another. They weren't talking very much, they were walking fast and most of them kept their heads down, not making eye contact with anyone.

These people were all afraid, and they weren't used to it. They still dressed in ways to catch the eye, but in turn were afraid of being seen. Like the public unconscious hadn't realized they were invaded yet. Everything I could see, the quick strides, furtive glances, jerky movements. It all said one thing, _Fear._

We walked purposefully toward where I could see a small merchant quarter directly across the Pedwalk Plaza from the Tower. We didn't talk, I could see that something was bothering Carth, but right now I was to intent on my surroundings and my goal to pay him any heed.

The merchant quarter as we discovered, consisted of a dozen various shops. Clothing boutiques, jewelry stores, nothing of interest save one. " **Kebla Yurt's** **Outfitter.** **"** was proudly displayed above the doors of the last shop on our right.

"I think this might be the one Vakris told me about." Carth said as we approached the doors.

Inside the place was packed full of survival equipment, body armor and weapons. Exactly the type of place I was hoping for. The proprietress was a dark skinned human of maybe early 30s and very attractive. Short cropped dark hair and chocolate colored eyes. She had a bright smile, welcoming us enthusiastically.

"Welcome to Kebla's Out Fitting Emporium, it's a pleasure to see new faces, how my I help you today?" she came around the counter and shook our hands before standing back and waiting politely as we looked around taking the place in.

"Not set on any one thing yet," I said meaningfully. Carth glanced at me confused, but I gave him the smallest shake of the head, hoping he would see it and let me handle this.

"Oh I see," Kebla eyed me speculatively for a moment then asked. "Were you thinking of gear or weapons?"

"Well here's the thing..." Over the next several minutes, I felt her out trying to gauge whether or not she was working for the Sith and if she wasn't, would she be willing to do something they weren't happy with? If it had the potential of profit. Kebla was very shrewd and picked up on what I was doing immediately and started feeling me out in the same way. Making sure I wasn't working for the Sith, or trying to get dirt on a successful business owner, or any of the hundred reasons someone could have for trying to screw her over. After a certain point it became clear we were both on the same page and we both dropped the act.

"So you lost all your heavy firepower to the Sith huh?" I asked as we moved over to look at her stock of arms and armor.

"Yup, the most powerful thing I have now is a Sith Sniper Rifle. The bastards forced me to buy it from them, after they stole half my stock!" She practically trembled with rage at that. Good that's exactly what I needed, anger tended to make one less cautious.

"Well I have some heavy hitting weapons myself that I don't necessarily need..." I left the statement open waiting as I looked through her shelves.

"What kind of weapons?"

"Standard repeating blasters, Heavy blaster pistols, conceal carry blasters, and five thermal detonators along with a couple personal energy shields." I said without looking at her, just continuing to fain interest in the display. I let her mull it over for a moment, then as though just remembering something I turned back to her. "Oh I also have Two Blastech E-220 Heavy repeating Carbines." She only held out another moment.

"I want see them in person, I'll be damned if I'm going to buy defective weapons." It was a perfectly ordinary request and I could hear it in her voice, Greed. She would be able to make some **Big** money, off the Heavy repeating blasters and she knew it.

"When would you like to see them?"

"How soon can you get them here?"

I turned and walked over to Carth without responding, he had grown bored of word games and wondered off sometime ago.

"She is going to buy all of them, or as many as she can afford." I said in a voice so low, Carth had to lean in to hear. "We just need to go get them."

"You sure she isn't going to set us up?" he asked dubiously.

"Almost positive, but on the off chance, one of us needs to hang around to make sure she doesn't have a sudden change of heart."

We looked at each other for a long moment then Carth nodded, "You go. I'll stick around and keep and eye on things."

I nodded back then walked back over to Kebla. "I'll be back in less than an hour."

"Good, I'll be waiting, is your friend over there going to help you get the goods?" she asked with a carefully blank expression.

I grinned malevolence clear on my face. "I'm afraid I just couldn't drag him away, don't worry you won't even notice him." the implication was quite clear and her face hardened. But she nodded with a slight droop of the shoulders. Normally I wouldn't resort to threats but if she had a change of heart while I was gone and called the Sith, people would die. I really didn't feel like killing anyone else that day.

The way back to the apartment was uneventful. I set the Sith sniper and the grenades I wanted to keep on the table before grabbing both bags. I looped one over each shoulder, tightened the straps and turned to leave. But something stopped me. I looked back too the workbench where my armor still sat. An instinct I didn't quite understand pulled at me until I stood looking down at the pocket in my armor, the one that held the lightsaber. Without thinking I reached down and slipped it free, examining it carefully for a long moment. I shook my head trying to dislodge the urge to put it in a pocket and take it with me. Carefully and deliberately, I bent and tucked it back into the pocket from whence it came. I stood pushing the strange impulse from my mind. Still puzzled I grabbed up my armor and packed it into the storage compartment in the wall. Then I grabbed the Sith sniper and the grenades off the table and stashed them in the storage compartment along with my gear. I took one last look around the place, then turning I quickly locked the door behind me and struck out for the Pedwalk at a brisk clip.

The way back to the shop was a little more nerve wracking. I was obviously armed and I had two huge bags strapped to my back. I got quite a few curious looks as I past people on the Pedwalk back to the Outfitter. About half way back I past by a Sith patrol heading the opposite direction. My heart beast fast with sudden adrenaline as one of them turned to look at me curiously. I kept looking strait forward not meeting anyone's eyes but not looking down either. A trick I learned a long time ago; in a populated area, keep your eyes strait forward, walk purposefully but don't rush. I didn't know why it worked, but on every single planet I had been too, people just instinctively got out of the way. Most of them didn't even realize they were doing it either. The Sith looking at me though, was a bit more perceptive than most. He was turning to me, I could tell by his body language, he was about to yell for me to stop. But one of his comrades nudged his shoulder and motioned him to keep moving. He glanced back but gave in and let me go, following his fellows on down the Pedwalk.

I let out a huge sigh of relief feeling blood pounding in my ears. I honestly didn't know what I would have done if he had stopped me. I didn't have any identification, they would have searched the bags and I would have had to kill half a dozen Sith right out in the open air surrounded by hundreds of people, or let them take me in to face a painful death most likely, once they figured out who I was. I shuddered at the thought and despite myself, I picked up my pace eager to get off the street. The rest of the short walk went smoothly I made it inside Kebla's shop without incident.

Kebla was waiting behind the counter towards the back of her shop, Carth was leaning against the counter speaking to her in hushed tones. As I approached Kebla leaned in, whispered something that wasn't quite loud enough for me to hear, before she straitened up and motioned me forward. As I quickly made my way forward I heard the door behind me open, a man walked in and looked around before his eyes settled on a display of blaster pistols.

Ignoring the man I stepped up to the counter nodding to Carth. "Do you want to wait for that guy to finish and leave?" I asked with out preamble looking Kebla in the eyes.

"Yes, I don't want to have heavy weapons spread out over my counters. Once he's gone I'll take you both to the back and see what you've got." She whispered as the man bent to look in at a small hold out blaster behind the glass.

"Hello sir is there something I can help you find today?" She asked in a bright cheery voice as she moved off to help the man.

"What were you talking about when I came in?" I asked in a tone just loud enough for Carth to hear.

He motioned me to follow then lead me a few meters away to the far corner of the store so we couldn't be overheard.

"Asked her about the other escape pods." he said

"And? Did she know anything?"

"Actually yes."

"So what did she say?" I asked.

"She said that half a dozen escape pods came down pretty near here. Only one landed in the upper city. That was us obviously." he paused as Kebla laughed loudly at something the customer had said.

"Go on." I prompted him.

"The other 5 all landed in the Under City."

"How did they navigate through the other city levels to make it all the way down there in escape pods?" I asked surprised.

Taris was an Ecumenopolis, not as extensively constructed as Coruscant or Nar Shaddaa, both of whom had literally thousands of levels of city construction. Taris only had four, if you counted the Under City. Even so the Lower, Middle and Upper Cities were a few kilometer thick. The foundation of each level being several hundred feet of reinforced Durasteel then almost two kilometers of open air, all of it being supported by the massive Sky Towers that stretched up into the lower Atmosphere. The idea that an escape pod could somehow make it all the way to the Under City past all of that was a little hard to believe.

"Light holes." he said with a look of mild incredulity. "Basically there are a few, kilometer wide holes that go all the way down to ground level. Most of them have been filled in and built over. But Kebla said there are still a few of them dotted around the planet to allow natural light down to the surface."

"That makes sense they haven't had thousands of years to build like Coruscant." I said.

"It means we are going to have to find a way down there. The Sith have blocked all air traffic through the different levels, and only Sith patrols are allowed to use the passenger Turbo Lifts between levels of the city." Carth said, his brow furrowed in annoyance.

Before I could respond we heard Kebla wish her possible customer fare well. We both turned and watched as Kebla followed close behind the man to activate the bright red, electric 'CLOSED' sign as soon as the door closed after him. She flicked over the lock on the front door and hurried back to us.

"Ok let's see this merchandise." she said leading us to the large storage room behind the counter. I laid out everything on a huge table in the back. We waited in patient silence surrounded by floor to ceiling shelving wracks, filled with boxes of all shapes and sizes, as Kebla checked over each weapon by hand to satisfy herself that everything was in order.

"How much do you want for all this?" she asked looking at me with a deeply interested expression.

"Fifteen thousand." I said in a flat tone. I had thought about the number all the way back from the apartment. Under normal circumstances that hall could have been easily sold for close to 20-30K, but with the world under quarantine, there was no way I would get prices that good for this stuff, unless I went out and sold it on the street myself. Which I wasn't about to do, Kebla however would probably sell one of the Heavy repeaters for over 20,000. I figured she would balk at the price at first, in order to get me to drop the price. That's exactly what she did.

"You must be out of your mind! Fifteen thousand while we are under a blockade?" she gave me a look of feigned hurt and shock. Carth also looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I figured he probably didn't know how much these were worth.

"Don't play games. By this time next week you will have sold both of those Heavy repeaters for at least 15k each." I said with an exasperated sigh.

"That might be, but I doubt it. The only people with the money for these, is the exchange and I don't have any kind of a deal with Davik. So I don't know if I will be able to sell these or not. I can't take the Thermal Detonators at all, if I get searched again and the Sith find those. I'll go strait to a cell." she said with conviction.

"Alright how about..." after a painfully long discussion, I finally get fed up with her and started shoving the blasters back into the bags. At which point she backpedaled with surprising speed away from the current insult of 6750 and offered us 10200. That was for everything except the Thermal Detonators. I was more than happy to take the offer, just to get out of there, we had wasted enough time already. I was getting really anxious to get moving, get on the trail, start the hunt. The feeling had been growing in me for most of the day, ever since I saw the vision of the woman back in the apartment. Showing up in my dreams as well as my waking hours I didn't know what to make of her, especially since I had met Bastila back on Dantooine. But the woman I kept seeing didn't look anything like her. Somehow though I had a gut feeling that the woman I kept seeing was the real person. But then who was the woman I met on Dantooine? That question along with all the others bouncing around in my head, pushed me to get out there, stop wasting time and get moving. Find the answers and stop this madness.

Shaking my head to clear it I put out my hand, we shook on it, then moved on to ironing out the final details. All we had were weapons. We needed some survival gear if we were going to be going down into the Under City. From what I had read on the local data net after my shower, the Under City was dangerous. Roaming gangs of former criminals who had been cast down there as a 'Delayed death sentence' of sorts. The Sith also had patrols down there I was sure, to look for the escape pods at least. They also had all the main industrial Turbo lift access points locked down, 'sanctioned' travel only. So I worked in a few pieces of gear we could use. Like a small backpack and a set of basic survival gear, she was surprisingly happy to let us take everything we asked for. Her willingness to just give us the items we asked for without renegotiating the price started off a couple of alarm bells in my mind.

"Why aren't you charging us for this?" I asked bluntly once we had gotten everything over to the counter.

Instead of answering she asked a question of her own. "You two are going after the escape pods huh?"

"Perhaps, is there something we should know about?" I asked as I started to organize the survival equipment into the new packs.

"I'm not going to say anything," she said quick to reassure us. "I just thought you should know that there are things a lot more dangerous than the Sith down there. You should go prepared that's all."

Sounded like the start of a sales pitch to me, but Carth was interested.

"Like what?" he asked leaning forward slightly with a quizzical expression.

"Rakghouls." she said with an involuntary shudder of revulsion.

"What's a Rakghoul?" I asked confused. When I had searched the local Data Net earlier that morning I hadn't seen anything about any 'Rakghouls' and told her so.

"No of course you wouldn't. They live exclusively in the Under City, so nobody cares. Gods help us if they ever figure out how to work one of the industrial turbo lifts though."

"So what are they?" Carth asked, interested, but skeptical.

"They are mutants of some kind. No one knows where they come from, a lot of theories but no one really knows." she paused for a moment, giving us a grim smile. "What we do know is that they are big, freakishly strong, surprisingly fast, and they attack anything that moves, literally. What's more if you get bitten, that's it. You turn into one of them and lose everything that once made you, the person you are."

Carth and I just looked at each other for a moment letting this new information sink in.

"So is there no cure, or vaccine to protect against being bitten?" Carth asked recovering first.

"Not to my knowledge, no. I suppose there is always a possibility of it. But I haven't heard of anything." she said giving us both a sympathetic look.

"Well shit," I couldn't really think of anything else to say.

What could we do? We didn't really have a choice in the matter. We had to find those pods, that meant getting down there and looking. Not really a pleasant task to begin with, now a very dangerous one, if she was telling us the truth.

"Well I appreciate the warning Kebla." I said noncommittally and hauling my new bag up. Now filled with survival gear, it was still a lot lighter than all the blasters had been. I shifted the weight around on my back until it was comfortable then turned to Carth. "You ready to get going?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." he said getting his own into place.

I turned to Kebla and waited patiently as she sighed then reached down under the counter and pulled out a blank Credit Chit. A quick swipe across her business computer, a few quick taps against the screen and she held it out to me.

"Ten thousand two hundred Republic credits, thanks for your business boys." she said handing it to me.

I nodded, Carth thanked her for all her help, then we finally turned to leave.

Some time later, after we dropped the equipment off at the apartment, we finally made our way back up to start scouting the area. The first place we stopped to check out was the local Cantina. It was in the main lobby of the Sky tower directly across the Pedwalk from ours. The outside was fairly plain, just a set of large automatic doors to the left of the main entrance. Just inside however, the Cantina was massive, the entrance was a large open lounge with dozens of people seated around Pazaak tables. Some of them were laughing with glee as they won, while the losers sat with sullen glares or shouts of outrage. Farther in past the gambling lounge was a central circular dining room with a huge support pillar in the center. Branching out from that, were three other rooms of around the same size. One appeared to be a lounge, armored patrons sat in large booths along one wall while the other was covered in floor to ceiling view screens. Excited sports fans clustered in front of the screens watching some kind of melee bout unfold with crystal clarity. Another of the branching rooms contained an elevated dance floor with scantily clad female Twi'leks dancing to upbeat music with heavy bass. The group clustered around the stage was mostly made up of men but there were a few women looking up at the gorgeous Twi'lek dancers with just as much lust as the men were displaying.

The last room contained what I was looking for, the bar. It was huge, covering the whole back wall of the room, behind the bar stood a tall Human man with black hair and a jovial expression. Standing next to him was another Twi'lek girl holding a tray of drinks. She leaned in to say something in his ear then hurried away walking past a door that I assumed led to the kitchen, before coming out from around the long bar and moving into the main dining hall with a huge fake smile and swinging hips. The mans expression didn't change when the girl spoke to him, but his eyes flicked away from the group clustered in front of him waiting for drinks and up to look right into my eyes. That was curious, who was this guy expecting to see?

Whoever it was, it wasn't me, he immediately looked away without giving me a second thought and went back to mixing drinks with practiced fluid movements. I motioned for Carth to follow me as I headed for the bar, all the while carefully examining the people we passed. Soldiers always have a certain zeal for celebration that is usually easy to spot. You could also spot them by their clothes they usually wore plain, sturdy, well kept items. Not very stylish but always clean and pressed, military life had a way of ingraining itself into every aspect of a persons life. They also almost always have shorter hair.

It only took me a few seconds to spot a big group of Sith troopers. Eleven of them took up two tables right next to each other, conspicuously empty tables sat to either side of them where they locals had obviously refused to sit. That didn't seem to bother the Sith however, they were laughing and yelling jokes and insults back and forth with the passion of people trying hard to forget that everyone in the whole world hated them.

I walked passed with only a glance at them, making my way, strait for the bar. Carth and I gently but firmly forced our way up to the bar and waited for the black haired human to spot us. The music from the room with the dancers floated to us on the air giving the place a feeling of vibrancy and life, totally at odds with everything else I had seen since leaving the apartment. The people felt it too, all around us people were talking and laughing with a sense of excitement that everyone else on the planet seemed to be missing

"So what's the plan here?" Carth asked leaning in to be heard and looking a little uncomfortable.

"That group of Sith at the tables over there." I motioned at them.

He looked over then turned back and nodded. "What about them?"

"I'm going to go over there with some drinks and get one of the girls to fall in love with me." I said with a 'shit eating' grin.

Carth glared at me for a long moment trying to figure out if I was being serious. "You are joking, right?" he finally said looking unimpressed.

"Not at all." I said becoming dead serious. "I'm going to charm one of those girls into inviting me to a party-." At that moment the bar tender walked up and waited with a big smile, for us to order something.

I ordered a two pitchers of Tarisian Ale then turned back to Carth as the guy walked off to get the drinks. "I'll convince the girl to let you come along, if I can." I said looking him up and down. We were both dressed almost exactly the same. But Carth had the look of someone who would rather be anywhere else. I doubted he would be able to convince anyone that he was out for the good time. I on the other hand I had always been good with people and comfortable with women, I figured that at least one of those girls had to be lonely enough to take a chance on me.

"Do you think we will actually be able to get Sith uniforms at one of those parties?" he asked looking dubious.

"Sure, why not. They think they are invulnerable right now. The whole planet in their grasp and all that. I bet you, they head back to that sky tower after a long day on patrol, take two steps into their rooms and strip right there. I would bet everything we have, that there will be full sets of standard Sith trooper armor, sitting just inside almost every room in the barracks tower." I said glancing over my shoulder to look at the group of Sith again.

Out of the eleven Sith at the tables 5 of them were women, more than I would have expected, but it made my job easier all the same. None of them were sitting close to any of the men, which was surprising. They say familiarity breeds closeness, but not always apparently.

"So what? You just go over there and ask one of them to take you to the party? Just like that?" Carth asked still dubious.

"Yeah Carth I'm just going to walk over there and say something like 'Hey ladies one of you down to for sex tonight'". I glared at him annoyed.

"Ok sorry, just seems like a long shot is all." he said putting up his hands in placation as the bartender came back with our Ale. He set the pitchers down in front of us along with two glasses then held out a portable credit chit scanner. I payed the man then turned to look back at the table again, studying the group. Two of the women were very ugly. No ugly wasn't the word, I wasn't even sure if hideous would do it. Those two looked like they had fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every single branch on the way down. The stuff of nightmares, truly disturbing. Despite how desperate those two probably would be to have some male companionship, I didn't think that it was a wise move. First off women like that, get used to being ignored at best or viciously abused at worse. They would be extremely suspicious of a decently handsome man suddenly showing interest in them. Second I didn't know if I could keep a straight face while trying to tell one of them that I was interested, some lies are just to far fetched, even for me. I was actually surprised to see women that gruesomely bad, among the group. Despite what you might think, in my experience not very many ugly women joined the military. Sure there were plenty of unimpressive girls out there. But the majority I had ever seen in military service had been somewhere between plain, and drop dead stunning.

So the question was, how to approach the group? I couldn't tell them who I really was, it didn't matter how drunk they were, a republic Spec Ops sergeant was not going to get me anywhere with them. Except maybe shot. So I had to make up a story. Just as I was deciding on a course of action when, the woman I had been eyeing up as my target, stood and walked off to the far left of the room, where a small dimly hall led to the refreshers. She was one of the those that fit into the 'in between' category. She was a pretty girl with short dark hair and a lithe hourglass figure, but her nose was a little too long and just a little too crooked to be considered truly beautiful. She looked to be early twenties, which was perfect. She would not be unaccustomed to men hitting on her but it wouldn't happen so often as to make her jaded and unresponsive.

I grabbed my Ale glass and followed after her at a steady unhurried pace. Once back into the hall I took up a position just behind the door to the ladies room. I waited for less than two minutes, I heard short clicking footsteps, then a sink turned on for a few seconds, then more clicking footsteps as she headed back out. The door opened and I leaned forward quickly smacking my forehead against the door, while at the same time dumping most of my drink down the front of my shirt. I uttered a muffled curse and stepped back grabbing my head. I hit the door a little harder then I had intended, stars flashed up before my eyes for a moment, as I staggered back to lean against the wall.

It worked though. The young woman, came around the door quick to see what had happened. There I stood holding my head with Ale spilled all over my front and a slightly dazed expression, not entirely faked either. She made one of those small breathless gasps and rushed forward to check me for damage.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Are you Ok? How badly are you hurt? Oh no and your drink? I'm so sorry?" she babbled on in this fashion as I tried to tell her I was alright. No I was fine, don't worry about it only an accident entirely my fault, no really I was fine. That continued all the way back to their table where she sat me down in her own chair ignoring her slightly confused friends and checked the rapidly growing bump on my forehead.

"Wow what did you do Tara hit him of the head with a bottle." A redhead on my right asked laughing as she saw the swelling bump.

"Of course I didn't!" Tara, apparently that was her name, I liked it, the name suited her somehow. She bent over me looking at my forehead with wrapped attention, not realizing that she was shoving her considerable breasts in my face. They were very nice breasts, and she wasn't wearing a bra under her tight, low cut, sleeveless top. I was momentarily distracted by the abundance of bosom, as she dabbed at my forehead with a cool cloth. A few of her male compatriots noticed my momentary distraction, two of the men looked amused, like they understood how one could be distracted by such and occurrence. The third man did not look amused, in fact his face started turning red with anger. He stood at once and grabbed Tara's arm pulling her back away from me.

"Leave off the civilian Tara." The man said with more anger than I think he intended. It sounded like a command which was a mistake, the woman although seeming to be very nice and considerate toward me, was an imperial soldier. Instead of backing down she yanked free of his grasp and took a step away from him, back toward me.

"Daven what do you think you're doing? Don't you dare grab me like that!" She snapped back at him with a glare of defiance.

Daven feeling affronted narrowed his eyes at her, his face turning red. "I wouldn't have to if you weren't acting like a slut." He said in a low but challenging tone.

Tara didn't hesitate, she whipped her leg up with surprising speed aiming for his groin. Daven twisted at the last second and caught the pointy toe of her low-heeled shoe, in the meat of his inner thigh. The man grunted with pain but it just seemed to make him angrier, I could tell things were about to get ugly. Which wouldn't serve my purposes at all.

"Hey look I didn't mean to cause trouble I'll just get going, enjoy your evening fellas." I blurted out standing quickly and making as though to back away from the group.

"No you didn't make any trouble at all," Tara said reaching out and grabbing my shirt, pulling me back towards the chair. "Daven here was just being an asshole, that has nothing to do with you. Sit back down I'm going to get you some ice and a drink since I spilled that one." she said pushing me back down into the chair and motioning to the empty ale glass I had set down on the table in front of me. She then gave me a quick smile and moved off towards the bar, all the while completely ignoring the man who so obviously wanted her attentions.

"She told you Daven!" One of the other men sitting across from me said laughing with a little more enthusiasm than the joke warranted.

"Shut up!" Daven shouted back at the man, which of course only made him laugh harder. "I'm warning you Kai, shut it right now or I'll beat you into silence." he growled at the other man.

This seemed to be exactly what the other guy was hoping for, because he stood up at once and came around the table to stand nose to nose with Daven. They stared each other down for a moment, both men glared with murderous intent. They probably had a long standing dislike for each other, with that kind of instant hostility. They stood about the same height, with Daven standing about an inch taller. Both of them had dark hair and brown eyes. But that is where the similarities ended. Daven would probably be considered a homely man, though well muscled. While the other guy, Kai, was quite handsome even more so than Carth or I, he was thin but taught as a whip. Obvious strength and speed ready to explode in sudden violence at any moment. I had met his type before, they were the type of guys who liked to fight for no other reason than 'Because', the type of guys that took hits to the face with a laugh before trying to bite your ear off. Unhinged was the word that came to mind and this guy was no different. I could see him tense, ready to spring into action. Normally I would be happy to let these scum balls kill each other, but I had a job to do and a brawl in here would be a very large wrench in the works.

"Wow the sexual tension is killing me." I said in a completely neutral tone, just loud enough for the enraptured group of Sith around me to hear. A moment of very tense silence followed while as one the two would-be-combatants turned murderous glares at me. But then the redhead who had spoken earlier busted up laughing so hard she almost fell from her chair. Just like that the tension broke and everyone else started laughing, even Kai grinned at me before walking back to his seat. The only one who wasn't amused was Daven, he was turning purple with rage as his friends guffawed all around him. If looks could kill, he would have turned me to ash on the spot. His eyes burned into me with murderous hatred for a long moment, then he spun on his heel and marched, stiff necked, from the Cantina.

Tara arrived back at the table with a fresh Ale and some ice a few moments after he left. She stood very close to me as she set down my new drink on the table before bending down to put the ice gently against my now very badly swollen forehead.

"What was all the laughing about? Oh I'm sorry did I hurt you?" she asked as I winced against the pressure of the ice.

"No you're fine thank you for the ice and the drink." I said reaching up to put my hand over the ice and letting my fingers brush against hers as I smiled up at her. She smiled back down at me letting the contact of our hands over the ice pack last just long enough to make her interest clear before turning away to pull up another chair next to mine.

The rest of the night went smooth. We talked and laughed together for almost an hour before Carth made his way over and pretended to have just arrived looking for me. It was a smoother move than I would have given him credit for, especially when everyone immediately insisted that he join us. He pulled up a chair next to the red head, whose name I had come to learn was in fact Rielin. She took to Carth straight off and invited him back to the barracks tower for a party later that night. Shortly after that, Tara placed her hand high up on the inside of my thigh and asked if I would like to head back to her private quarters with her. Which wasn't an easy question to answer. The short answer was Yes. I actually like Tara, she was funny and smart with the kind of toned hour glass body that any man would be stupid to ignore. She also had that indefinable allure and sex appeal that makes small imperfections like her crooked nose, seem to pale by comparison. Even so I wasn't the type of man to go off with random women I had just met, especially Sith. I didn't know anything about this girl, she could be the lovely young woman she appeared to be, or she could be a serial killer. But I didn't have much time to think about it. Yes or No question with the clock ticking and perfect disguises in the balance. Ultimately I did the only thing I could really do.

"What are we still doing here? Let's go." I said with a huge grin as I stood and pulled her up after me.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello everyone, I'm really sorry it took so long to update this story. I had to rent a laptop because my PC's hard drive burnt out. I lost everything and had to start over, it took a while to get back to where I could continue with a new chapter. But it's here now and I hope you enjoy. If you like it or hate it please write a review and let me know so I can get better in the future. Thanks again.

* * *

I leaned down to whisper in Carth's ear as we walked by. "She's taking me back to the barracks tower, I'll make my way back to the apartment tomorrow." Carth just nodded his acknowledgment as I straitened up. With a grin I offered Tara my hand, to my surprise her cheeks turned pink as she accepted it. As we walked out I realized where the embarrassment must have come from. As we past by the locals who were paying attention gave us hostile glares. We even got a couple cat calls and more than enough disgusted sneers to last me one life time. Tara just grit her teeth with her head held high and ignored everyone as we went, though she was squeezing my hand hard enough to grind the bones together. The whole experience made be feel terrible, for two reasons. On the one hand I hated the Sith just like all those people in there, I could understand their feelings of betrayal. On the other hand over the last couple hours I had gotten to know Tara a little bit, and what I had learned so far inclined me to believe that she wasn't a bad person at all. Just one trying to make the best of a bad situation. I felt sorry for her, which is not something I ever thought I would feel about a Sith.

Over the course of time we had spent in the cantina night had fallen over Taris, though the light level hadn't dropped all that much. Unsurprisingly every tower within sight was a brightly lit beacon of artificial light in the bustling city darkness. Some of the newer or better maintained towers had massive hundred meter tall holo displays that were advertising products and services, along with showing the Sith governors face every once in a while to remind the citizens that cooperation with the invasion would lead to peace and prosperity.

Beside me Tara snorted up at the Giant head of Admiral Karath, as the prerecorded message played. "I can't believe Karath actually thinks that those propaganda messages do any good." she said with disgust.

"He knows that they don't, but he has to have them played." I replied. She turned to me with interest, a quizzical expression on her face. "Why?"

I shrugged, "Politics, he has to maintain the appearance of benevolence for the official record. It has nothing to do with this invasion, it's for the benefit of races like the Selkath. The Sith have portrayed themselves as misunderstood, and persecuted to most of the other races and governments that work with them. If they were honest and strait forward about conquests like this one, instead of miring them in political misdirection the other races who have bought into their persona would withdraw their support." It was only after I finished speaking that I remembered who I was talking too. Internally I cringed expecting her yank her hand out of mine and slap me, or arrest me on the spot. Instead when I looked down at her she just gave me a sad half smile.

"Yeah I need to find a new job." she said before fishing her communicator out of a pocket and calling for a transport back to the barracks tower. I waited until she slipped the communicator back into her pocket before squeezing her hand gently. She looked up at me with expectant eyes. I wanted to ask her about that comment, did she no longer wish to be a Sith? Was she starting to question the people behind the scenes. But when our eyes locked all thoughts of Sith vs. Republic and invasions and missions just fled my mind. It had been so long since I had been with a woman. Months at least, between the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil wars I had gone from one battlefield to another without much of a break in between for years on end. The rare occasions I did get leave weren't long enough for me to have any kind of relationships. More often than not when the need built to the point that it was impairing me, I ended up in a red light district on whatever back water I was stationed on. Every one of those excursions left me feeling like a bastard. I knew full well that most of the girls in those places had no choice about being there. I tried to tamp down my guilt by being good to them and paying well, but it didn't really work. Every time I left one of those rooms, it tore me up, knowing that the next person to come by probably wouldn't be as kind. Tara was different she wanted me for no reason other than, it would be fun. I wouldn't feel any guilt in the morning and I could finally let off the steam that months of active duty with no break, had built up.

I kissed her, it was meant to be a soft sweet thing, but the moment my lips touched hers, we went up in flames. Her arms went around my neck as she opened her mouth to mine. My hands slid down her back to squeeze her ass with greedy desire. She moaned into my mouth as our tongues fought exploring every inch of each others mouths. I had completely forgotten about where we were or what I was supposed to be doing, Nothing else but her, mattered to me in that moment. Then a loud wolf whistle sounded behind us before a group of teenagers started jeering loudly as they walked past.

We broke apart looking around with guilty glances as we noticed all the people around us staring with disapproval. Tara blushed deeply and hid her face against my chest giggling. My cheeks felt a little warm as I pulled Tara off to the side of the Pedwalk away from the other pedestrians.

"Well that was embarrassing." She said looking down at her boots as we waited for the air taxi to arrive. I grinned at her blush.

"I wouldn't have pegged you for the easily embarrassed type Tara."

"Normally I'm not, I was just surprised." She glanced up to see my grin before pretending to check her nails.

"Don't worry I was a bit surprised too." I said in a low tone as I stepped forward and took one of her hands. She looked up into my face and I let my desire show as I looked her up and down with slow appreciation. Her blush deepened, but she moved forward until we were pressed together front to front. With desire plain in her eyes she grinned up at me as she subtly ground her pelvis into mine. My already half erect manhood stiffened to attention with the move.

"I could tell." she said in a low inviting tone before pulling away with a grin and taking my hand. I moaned with excited frustration before glaring down at her still grinning face.

"Oh I'm going to get you for that." Her grin just broadened.

"Promises, promises." before I could say anything else a taxi zipped down out of the night sky to land a couple meters away on the pedwalk landing zone. She dragged me to the speeder and climbed inside pulling me in after her.

The flight to the barracks tower was a short one, with both of us subtly stroking the other. Trying to keep a strait face when a woman is rubbing your cock through your pants is difficult at the best of times. But when your doing the same to her it becomes nearly impossible. The cab's pilot finally asked us in a very dry tone to please wait until we arrived at our destination to have sex. Which made us both snatch our hands back and grin at each other like idiots.

When we arrived Tara scrambled out without a seconds pause. "What about the fee?" I asked looking between the cab driver and Tara.

"They are reimbursed by the empire every month." Tara said as she reached in to grab my hand and try and drag me out. I looked up to the driver to see him glaring sullenly into the distance. Apparently he wasn't reimbursed quite as well as he should have been. I motioned to Tara to wait while I pulled out my credit chit. I swiped it in the machine attached to the back of the drivers seat and left him a good tip that would have more than payed for the short trip. The young man turned to look back at me with surprise before nodding his thanks with a small smile. I grinned back and let Tara pull me out of the cab.

The cab had landed on one of the lower tier platforms that dotted the Sky towers super structure. It was large enough for two dozen speeders to land on at once, but this one was mostly empty. Only one other speeder was parked on the far side of the platform. Tara pulled me along behind her as she headed for the large sliding glass doors ahead. Inside the barracks tower was almost exactly the same as the Tower Carth and I were staying in. The only difference being that it was far cleaner and the halls were empty except for small groups of Sith standing and talking next to open doors of apartments that were being used for parties. Each one we passed had groups of men and women dancing and drinking to loud thumping music with heavy bass. I was actually surprised that none of the officers were coming down on them for the lack of discipline. Until I saw a man in a colonel's uniform drinking an ale in one of the rooms, his jacket unbuttoned and a young Twi'lek girl sitting on his lap. She couldn't have been more than 15 or 16 galactic standard years old. Rage bubbled up from deep within me, the idea that anyone could use a child in such a way was disgusting to say the least. But to the empire aliens didn't have many rights, only the aliens that the Empire considered important were given any rights at all. I looked away before the rage building in me could take hold and make me do something that I would regret, but Tara must have noticed me stiffening or some other tell I couldn't quite hide. She glanced over to see what I had been looking at and sneered in disgust.

"That right there, is why I'm bringing you back here with me. Give men a little power and most of them turn into disgusting pigs. Not worth my time." she squeezed my hand and gave me a small sad smile before pulling me down the corridor toward the turbo lift. The trip was short, Tara was billeted only a couple floors above the level with the landing platform. The floor we stepped out on was almost dead quite when compared to the lower level. I looked around in confusion for a moment as Tara pulled me down the hall. She glanced back and saw my curious expression and smiled.

"The levels with landing platforms are the party levels, I would say 90% of our personnel is either down there or getting some rack time before the early patrol shifts." I nodded in understanding, while inside I sighed with relief. It would be much easier to get into a room and search for the gear I needed if the floor was cleared out. I kept and eye out for any kind of visual surveillance but I didn't spot anything. I barely kept the grin from breaking across my face. The arrogance of them, the idea that anyone could sneak in here and do any real damage was something they weren't even considering. It was a huge mistake that I was happy to take advantage of.

Tara stopped at one of the doors about 30 meters from the turbo lift and swiped a standard key card through a slot next to the door. It clicked then slipped open silently, obviously better maintained than our sky tower. As soon as the door closed behind us Tara was plastered to me. Her arms snaked around my neck as she ground her pelvis against me. The fire from earlier roared back with a vengeance. My hands caressed their way from her stomach around to squeeze her fine firm ass. My tongue dove into her mouth and she moaned. With a slow patient move I slipped one of my hands under her shirt, to slide up smooth toned abdominals to cup one of her impressive breasts. I squeezed gently and Tara moaned again as she pressed herself more firmly into my palm. I rubbed my thumb over the hardening nub of her nipple through the thin fabric. She gasped and nipped my lower lip with her teeth.

"Like that do you?" I asked as I gently pinched the nipple, she let out a little whimper of delight as the melted into me. "You want my mouth around this nipple?" I asked as I cupped her other breast with my free hand. She nodded as best she could while grinding her pelvis against my thigh with quick eager motions.

"Tell me Tara." I said as I pinched both nipples a little harder. She whimpered as her hands clutched at my back trying to pull me closer. "Tell me what you want." I said insistent.

"I want you inside me, gods I want it so badly." her voice was a breathy whisper. I let her go and took a slow step back. She looked up at me with a dazed lust addled expression.

"Then you had better get naked." I said with a wolfish grin. She grinned back as she slowly reached down to grab the hem of her shirt. She started to sway her hips from side to side as she pulled the shirt slowly up to reveal her bra then off over her head. My pants became a painful constriction threatening to break my poor erection if I didn't let it loose soon. She kicked off her flats then slowly popped the front button of her pants. I pulled my own shirt off before kneeling down to unlace my boots as I watched her slowly slide the pants down over her hips and down her legs letting them pool around her ankles. I got both my boots off as she popped the back clasp of the bra letting the straps fall lose. I leaned in before she could pull it off her shoulders and grabbed her hands. Then very slowly I pulled her hands down holding them at her sides before bending forward and taking one of the straps between my teeth and pulling it down off her shoulder. She shivered at my close proximity as I pulled it free and let it drop to the floor.

Her breasts were spectacular, I couldn't believe such perfect breasts could belong to a woman in such good shape. They were perfectly round and high but also quite large. The largest breasts I had ever seen on a truly fit human woman. Twi'lek females could get really fit like this without losing breast size, but human women? They almost always shrank when a woman kept as fit as Tara obviously was. I took a long moment to just stand there and drink in those perfect breasts before temptation overwhelmed me. I leaned in and took one of her soft pink nipples in my mouth. She whimpered as her hands threaded into my hair pulling me closer. I sucked gently reveling in the taste of her, in the little sounds of pleasure that escaped her lips. I gave the nipple one last hard suck and felt her whole body shiver as she cried out. I let the nipple fall from my mouth before kissing my way across to her sternum and down. Her panties were a simple white triangle of cloth that was so thin I could see her neatly trimmed pubic hair beneath. I darted my tongue out to lick her through the fabric. The cloth was already soaked which just made me harder. Her hands, still in my hair clutched at me as she shivered in delight and started panting. I licked out again taking my time and pressing deep into the fabric. She let out a strangled cry as her legs started shaking.

I couldn't take it anymore, I felt like my cock was going to break in half and I was burning with the type of lust that would have left me completely unimpressed if and entire platoon busted down the door and started shooting. I would have just shouted at them to wait. I quickly climbed to my feet and fumbled with the button of my pants as Tara took a wobbly step back to sit on the bed as she watched me with uninhibited lust. She licked out to wet her upper lip as I got the button undone and yanked my pants down. I hopped out of them with less grace than I would have liked but I really couldn't give a shit at that point. I stood before her naked for a moment as her eyes roamed over me with the kind of raw feminine appreciation that would make any man strut. Then she leaned back on the bed stretching her arms out over her head grinning wickedly. I knelt in front of her and worked the sodden panties down her legs, tossing them away like they were the most offensive things I had ever seen. Then I was pushing her legs apart and nuzzling between her thighs. She moaned loudly as her hands found their way back into my hair. She clutched at me as my tongue darted out to taste her. She let out a little feminine sound of pleasure that had my cock twitching with excitement. My tongue dove in as deep as I could reach while my hands roamed over her thighs and abdomen. Tasting, touching, licking, sucking she was writhing around on the bed and crying out with her first climax the moment I touched her little magic bundle of nerves. She collapsed back onto the bed letting her hands slide free of my hair as she went limp from her orgasm. I climbed up onto the bed then pulled her farther up so her legs weren't hanging off the edge. Still completely limp she looked up at me with a happy satisfied half smile. Her lids were heavy as I slid between her thighs. Her smile turned wicked as those thighs came up around my waist.

"Your turn." she said in a husky whisper as I leaned in to brace myself over her. She reached down to take hold of my shaft and guide me to her entrance. She cried out as I pushed into her, she was tight, definitely tighter than I expected. I slowed letting her adjust to my not inconsiderable size. Her body shivered and she pulled me down for a kiss as I gently slid another inch inside her. She moaned into my mouth as our tongues tangled with manic intensity. She was hot, wet, and throbbing around my shaft. Pleasure arced through my body as I shuddered against her.

"More," it was a gruff demand. Who was I to argue? I pulled back sliding all the way out, relishing the little noises she made, before slamming back in with no finesse. She cried out and clutched at my shoulders and back, her short nails digging into my skin, it only spurred me on. I tried to go slowly but with her writhing and kissing and clawing at me I didn't last long. Before I knew it I was pounding into her with as much speed and force as I could muster. The pleasure of her hot body was incredible, I couldn't remember that last time I had been so thoroughly intoxicated by a woman. Tara was moving with me bucking her hips up greedily to meet my thrusts. The combination of her wholehearted enjoyment and my own lust made it impossible to last. It seemed like only moments before I felt my orgasm build at the base of my spine. I reared up onto my knees and supported her with a hand under her lower back while my other hand slid between us to gently rub at her clit. Her orgasm slammed through her, she screamed loud enough that I wouldn't have been surprised if a squad of Sith burst in to see who was being murdered. She pulsed around me, milking my shaft with delicious strength. I came in a rush, pleasure pounded through my veins as I exploded inside her. I howled with ecstasy before collapsing on top of her.

I lay there panting for breath, my heart thundering against my ribs. Her arms went around me to stroke my back as she sighed contentedly. We lay there for a long time, not saying anything, just content to lay in each others arms still connected. After a while she giggled softly and kissed the top of my head.

"What's that about?" I asked trying desperately to keep my eyes open.

"We both stink." she giggled again and I grinned.

"Never did get a shower for the ale I dumped on myself."

"We should do something about that." she said invitation heavy in her voice. I gently ground my hips into her, my cock springing back to life inside her with impressive speed. She gasped and matched me thrust for thrust as we lost ourselves to passion once more.

The second time lasted much longer, as we tried out other positions and laughed as we fumbled some of them. All the while a true sense of guilt started to build up inside me. Tara was a lovely person and I knew enough about myself to know that she was the kind of person that I could truly come to care about. Yet even though I already cared about her more than I should I was still taking advantage of her to accomplish my objective. Why couldn't she have been a racist bitch? Why did I have to pick one of the few good people in the Sith war machine. The guilt and regret didn't stop the third time in the shower though. Which was truly inspired, slick wet flesh sliding back and forth together as water pounded down on top of us. After the shower we went back to bed and just lay there holding each other and talking. At some point during the night she climbed up to straddle my hips and time number 4 commenced. It was very slow, her rocking back and forth on top of me, while I explored her stomach, hips and breasts. We finally came together in world shattering orgasm that left us both trembling and barely able to move. She lay on top of me and I stoked her back as we got our breathing under control. Again we just lay there still connected, content to just hold one another.

She started talking again after a while, telling me about her early life on a backwater world with a shitty abusive father and no way out. Until the Sith arrived, finally an opportunity to escape her miserable life.

"I knew they weren't good people, but I was desperate, anything was better than getting married to fat sons of my fathers friends. Being treated like garbage for the rest of my life. So I went, snuck out one night when my father was passed out drunk and made my way to the temporary recruitment base. I was off planet less than 24 hours later." she sighed and snuggled closer nuzzling her cheek against my chest. I squeezed her tight and kissed the top of her head. I couldn't judge her, if anything she said was true I probably would have made the same decision in her place.

"Why not leave now that you're free?" I asked softly. I could feel her grin as she shook her head.

"I gave my word to serve 5 years, I don't want to be a defector. I don't want to be hunted by my friends, by the people that excepted me and became my true family. So until that 5 years is up I'll keep my word and serve." the words were soft almost like she was talking to herself. I let out a regretful sigh and closed my eyes.

"Your a good person Tara." I whispered back.

"Thanks I try to be." she tilted her head to grin up at me, she squeezed those incredible feminine muscles around my semi hard shaft before slowly biting down on my chest. I sucked in a breath as I started hardening yet again.

"You're going to be the death of me woman." I hissed out as she started moving her hips.

"Nice way to go huh?" she grinned and leaned back to straddle me once more.

"The best." I moaned.

It wasn't until after three in the morning local time before I could sneak away from a sleeping Tara. I had found a note pad on the built in desk in the apartment and left her a note at least. But ultimately no matter how much I liked her, this night was only ever going to end one way. I was pretty sure she knew and understood that, yet the twinge of guilt and regret followed me out of her apartment and down the corridor.

I walked until her door was out of sight before I paused to look around. The corridor was completely deserted, the only sounds came from the late night parties still raging on in the lower levels of the sky tower. I walked up to the door closest to me and connected one of my wrist comps interface cables to the port next to the door. My wrist comp searched out the doors command prompts while I scanned back and forth down the hall. If a patrol came by I figured I would be alright, my shirt still smelled like ale so I could just pretend to be a drunken local who wondered off and got lost. Bet that happened almost every night in this tower with all the parties going on. My wrist comp gained access to the apartments operating system and scanned the interior. No life signs present, another quick command and emergency fire override had the door sliding open in complete silence.

Inside, the room was dark, a quick search turned up nothing of interest, the occupant was probably on night patrol. The following three rooms were similarly empty of anything useful. It was the fifth that contained the first success. On the floor in a portable shoulder pack was a Sith corporals patrol gear. A full set of standard trooper armor and belt holster with a standard issue blaster pistol. I used my wrist comp to shut the apartment door and turned on the lights. I quickly pulled the armor out of the pack and stripped off my own clothes. The armor consisted of two layers, a super high tech semi organic body suit capable of expanding or contracting to fit virtually any size of human being. While the outer layer was a smart alloy that could mold itself to it's wearers body shape. The armor was only one out of a number of technological advantages that the Sith had over the republic. The armor was tough and durable, able to take both energy and projectile impacts without failing. Along with the ability to regulate the users body temperature and filter out an impressive amount of toxins from the air. The Sith mass produced the armor and with it's ability to mold to virtually any body shape it meant that the Sith never had a problem outfitting their ground troops with armor that was easily a match all but the very best that the Republic could offer.

This set was molded to a much smaller person than myself and while I knew that it could mold itself to a larger person I wasn't exactly sure how to make it work. I used my wrist comp to try an wirelessly link into the armor but it couldn't find any kind of wireless link. I picked up the torso section of the armor, to find it was split down the back. It had fully armored sleeves and integrated gauntlets. I slid my right arm into the sleeve as far as it could go and waited hoping that the adaptation mechanism was automated. It was, after only a few seconds I could feel the smooth fabric loosen around my arm. I slid my arm all the way in, feeling my hand fit snugly into the armored gauntlet. When I tried the left arm I found that the suits torso section had already adjusted to my size. My arm slid smoothly in and once I had suit in place I felt the back of the suit tighten across my torso and secure itself against my back. How could the Sith have built something like this, it was decades if not centuries ahead of anything that the most advanced Republic worlds could engineer. The pants section of the armor had adjusted to me as well, the armored suit slid smoothly over my legs with an utterly perfect fit. Once the grieves were over my hips the armor automatically sealed into the torso section making a perfect seal at my waist. The helmet wasn't quite right and sat on top of my head for a moment before I could feel it expand and slide down over my head. The helmet automatically sealed to the torso section and the opaque face plate cleared. After a moment a number of icons winked into existence across the transparasteel visor, forming a simple heads up display. As my eyes past over the individual icons they enlarged and became more detailed. The amount of information was startling, integrated map functions, motion tracking, heart monitor, visual range functions, infrared, light enhancement.

The tech was incredible even my gear didn't have this kind of functionality and I was issued with some of the very best the Republic could produce. No wonder the Sith were winning. I strapped my wrist comp over the armor and clipped the blaster belt on. As I was stuffing my clothes into the shoulder bag a new icon popped up in the HUD when I focused on the icon, it expanded to ask if I wished to integrate with an external computing device. I glanced at my wrist comp to see that it was receiving link request from an external source. I blinked in surprise before excepting the link request. New icons expanded into my HUD, the suit seamlessly integrating the wrist comps computing power and other functions allowing me to access everything from the HUD. I just stared at the new icons in growing dismay. One of the diagnostic icons in the corner of the screen informed me that the external device increased overall computing power by 22%. The armor had almost four times the computing power of my wrist comp, which was the very best model the Republic military made. The technology was incredible. For a simple armor suit to be this sophisticated… How much more impressive must the Sith's Combat Vessels be? I shook off the growing dismay at the discovery and shoved my clothes into the shoulder bag.

I took one last quick look around the room and left slinging the back over my shoulders as I walked out. The suits onboard operating system automatically locked the door behind me. Using the suits onboard infrared scanner I checked inside the rooms as I past ignoring every room with a heat signature. Five rooms farther down I found the next empty room, as I approached the door, the suit automatically quested the apartments OS and used my wrist comps fire alarm override to open the door before I could come within arms reach of the door panel. I paused just outside the door, the feeling of shocked dismay coming back. I was starting to get unnerved by just how smart the suit was, almost as if it were a primitive AI. But if that was the case why didn't the suit sound some kind of alarm when someone other than it's original wearer tried to put it on? I shook my head and ducked into the apartment. No armor or gear of any kind, the only sign of occupation was the unmade bed. The suit locked the door behind me as I left. The next dozen rooms were occupied, but the thirteenth had what I needed.

Another empty room with an armor suit identical to mine spread out over the bed and up against the wall next to the bed was the largest blaster rifle I had ever seen. It was about 1.6 meters in length and vaguely looked like the Sith sniper I had back at the apartment. When I went over and picked it up the suit connected to its targeting system. An icon appeared in my HUD marked 'AMR M-1500'. I expanded the icon and my jaw dropped, the Anti Material Rifle model 1500 was a standard long ranged precision laser rifle weighing in at 5.2 kilos. With a 5 kilometer effective range, it was capable of firing 5, 1.5 gigawatt pulses with three standard power cells at full power. Which was more than powerful enough to punch clean through a star fighter. My specialized blaster pistols could only produce 75 megawatt pulses and they were more than powerful enough to burn through durasteel. I held the weapon reverently, this was the most powerful hand held blaster rifle I had ever even heard about. I couldn't leave it behind I had to take it. That kind of fire power could be extremely useful, or if nothing else I could sell it to the exchange for enough to buy a small starship.

I took off the shoulder bag and stuffed the second set of armor into it on top of my clothes. But when I came to the helmet I paused, there was some kind of visor on the helmet that wasn't on my own helmet it slid easily up and down the face plate. When I tried to pull on it another icon popped up in my HUD, when it expanded it asked if I would like to integrate the 'R-22 recon visor' I accepted and the visor made a clicking sound as it snapped free of the extra helmet. When I put it up to my own helmet over my eyes, I heard another clicking sound and new icons replaced my visual functions. Over a dozen new icons filled the space. I just shook my head in dismay and stuffed the helmet into the large shoulder bag. Then I reached down and hefted up the AMR. The only question was how was I going to get it out of here along with the shoulder bag. The AMR's icon popped up into my display once more and I let it expand examining the suits information on the weapon. At the bottom of the list was and icon called integrated storage I expanded it, and a small line of text popped up. " _ **Magnetic holster activated place weapon against spinal magnetic carriage**_." With a raised eyebrow I lifted the weapon over my shoulder and held it to my back surprised by how relatively light the massive weapon was. It snapped solidly against my spine with a soft 'Clunk'. Carefully I let go, but the rifle stayed firmly in place which made a huge grin spread across my face. I never thought I would be jealous of the Sith but that day I was very, very jealous. I slung the heavy bag over my left shoulder and left the apartment.

As I headed back down the corridor my motion tracking spotted movement 20 meters farther down just around the bend. My heart skipped a beat, this was the moment of truth if this group stopped me I would never get out of the tower. I kept a steady pace affecting a slightly slumped, tired stride like a man who had gotten up to early and was resentful of the fact. A few more steps and the group of Sith came into sight. Two men both tall, one brown haired, one blond, average faces. Escorting two young Twi'lek females. One deep maroon the other bright green, both of them were stunning. The men were grinning and talking while the girls were laughing draping themselves all over the two men. I let out a small sigh of relief, no way would those two care enough about me to let that opportunity slip through their fingers. Just as I thought they raised a hand in greeting as we passed each other, I nodded acknowledgment while the two girls giggled and waved as I went past.

I got into the turbolift and browsed the suits map function, it showed me that their was another level with landing platforms 10 levels up. I considered for a moment then selected the level. I didn't want to walk past all the parties on my way out, lots of drunk people that could conceivably cause me lots of problems. While the lift shot up I used my wrist comp's communicator function to call for a taxi speeder to meet me on the landing platform. The lift doors opened and my stomach fell back down several floors, a medical alert icon flashed in the corner of my HUD telling me that my heart rate and respiration were spiking.

Directly in front of me were the doors to the landing platform, but to either side of them were dozens of Sith troopers. The floor was some kind of staging area, clumps of troopers stood milling about and talking, checking weapons, and generally getting ready for their deployments. A number of them turned when the lift doors opened, I got nods, waves, and a few shouted welcomes as I stepped out. I gave the room a quick wave as I headed for the doors. Look strait ahead, keep a steady purposeful air. If you act like you belong no one will question you. Unless you pass a decently intelligent newly promoted sergeant that feels the need to throw is weight around and prove how big his dick is.

"You there, Corporal." A well bread Imperial voice said from behind me. I kept walking as though not realizing who the man was speaking too. "Corporal!" it was a shout this time. Quick boot steps from behind then a hand grabbed my upper arm jerked me around.

"What are you doing?" I snapped at him before he could speak. The wasn't wearing a helmet and the look of surprise was on his face was impossible to hide. He wasn't use to being questioned by someone of lesser rank. He seemed confused for a long second before his face hardened with anger.  
"What are you doing? Is the question." He snapped at me.

"I was just ordered to provide over watch support for a patrol in the lower City, but my spotter is at his girlfriends apartment in the Kino district, so I'm on my way over there to get him then I'm going to go back up a patrol that needs me to be there ten minutes ago! So again what are you doing sir?" the last was snapped out with contempt. The sergeants face reddened with indignation, he was in the wrong and he knew it. If I were really doing what I claimed and a member of the patrol died because this sergeant had detained me without cause it would have gone very badly for his career. He knew it and the sense of self preservation that I was counting on overpowered his pride.

"On your way then Corporal." He said through gritted teeth.

"Sir, thank you sir." I managed to say it without any sarcasm which took some of the sting out of the situation. I quickly saluted him and spun on my heel jogging out into the darkness. My taxi was just setting down as I went through the doors. It had started raining while I had been inside and my boots made loud splashing sounds as I jogged to the speeders rear door. The door slid open smoothly as I approached. I focused on the little pulsing icon that had appeared in my HUD once I connected the rifle to my back. The icon expanded quickly and I reached back to grab the rifle. A soft 'Clunk' and the rifle fell free. I slid into the back seat and pulled the door closed. Setting the rifle down next to me on the seat.

"Where too sir?" the middle aged human male asked from the front. I gave him the location of the sky tower directly across the Pedwalk from our building. The man nodded and we smoothly accelerated into the nigh sky. On the trip back I pinged Carth's communicator, he answered on the second tone.

"Yes?"

"Carth where are you?"

"Back at the apartment. Where are you?"

"Heading back, can you meet me two floors above the Cantina we were at earlier?" there was a pause.

"Give me 10 minutes."

"Good see you then, and bring one of the large gear bags with you."

"Got it, on my way." I cut the connection and sat back to wait.

It only took 5 minutes to get to the tower but the driver dropped me off a few hundred floors above the Cantina. I got out of the cab without speaking, maintaining the superior Sith asshole act. I set the rifle back against the magnetic pad on the back of the armor as I walked to the door. The floor inside consisted of small boutique clothing and jewelry stores, along with a couple of small bistros. I used my wrist comp to connect to the towers Net, and downloaded the layout. As I headed for the turbo lift I scrolled through the layout looking for an abandoned floor, all the while ignoring the fearful looks of the locals as I walked past. As I was waiting for the lift to arrive I found the level I wanted. Ten levels above the Cantina, a residential level that was showing no current occupants. The lift opened and the older couple standing inside blanched when they saw me standing there. I grinned behind the helmet, they had such comical looks of identical dismay on both of their wrinkled faces that it was all I could do not to laugh as I stepped on to the lift with them.

"Heading down I hope?" I said in the deepest voice I could muster. In my peripheral vision the woman swayed on her feet, looking as though she might feint while the man spoke quickly.

"Yes of course sir whatever you want." I rolled my eyes and added my floor to the queue as the doors closed.

I pinged Carth's comlink again. He answered on the first tone this time.

"Yeah?"

"Change of plans meet me on the tenth level above the Cantina."

"Any reason for the change?"

"Tenth level has less traffic."

"Got it be there in three." He cut the connection and I leaned back against the wall to wait.

With all the traffic on and off the lift it took me almost seven minutes to make it down to meet Carth. When the doors finally opened on the floor I walked out to see Carth sitting on a public bench about 15 meters down the hall to my left one of the large gear bags folded next to him on the bench. I gave him a little wave and his eyes widened in shock, I grinned. Carth stood as I walked up next to him.

"So you were successful." Carth said looking me up and down. I nodded and used the suits infrared to scan the apartment behind Carth, no heat signatures. I quested the apartments OS and used the same fire alarm override to get the door open. The door creaked loudly then jerked and slid apart, the motor grinding alarmingly. Carth spun around at the noise, hand on the hilt of his blaster.

"I opened it, nothing to worry about." I said as I walked past him and into the apartment. Carth followed after me glancing around the room. He hit the lights, only two lighting strips came on and one of them flickered constantly. I used my wrist comp to order the doors closed and they clattered slowly closed behind Carth. As soon as they were closed I expanded the 'suit control icon' and ordered the suit to shut down. The visor went Dark and the seals at my neck and waist split. Then I heard a loud thunk as the AMR dropped off my back and fell to the floor. I cringed at the sound and pulled the helmet off. Carth was smirking. I gave him a finger gesture and bent down to pick up the Rifle and check it over. It was build tough and didn't appear to be damaged, but I would check it more thoroughly when we got back.

"So how did your night go?" I asked to distract him from the rifle. He frowned.

"Not well, soon after you left Rielin invited me back to the barracks tower for the party. But I don't have any kind of portable comp, and I wasn't confident that no one would recognized me, so I plead feeling sick and headed back to the apartment to wait." he said looking irritated. I could see his point, Carth was a well known officer, and without a comp to hack the doors he would have needed to steal the keys off the Sith. I agreed it would have been to big a risk.

"How about yours?" he asked with a slightly disapproving tone. I just gave him my best shit eating grin and pulled off the torso section of the armor. "Yeah that's what I thought."

"Don't. Okay, It's been months for me. Besides my only other option would have been to knock her unconscious when we got back to her room. Then she would have reported me and that would have brought way to much attention down on us." I said irritated. He nodded reluctantly and moved forward to check out the armor.

"Wow, self sealing seams. That's way ahead of us." he said as he checked the torso section while I slid the leg armor off. While Carth checked out my haul I dug through the shoulder bag and pulled out my clothes and boots. Carth was examining the Rifle by the time I was dressed.

"What is this?" he asked admiringly.

"That is an Anti Material Rifle, capable of 1.5 gigawatt pulses." I said barely able to cover my glee at the weapon. Carth jaw dropped as he looked over at me in disbelief.

"You're joking."

"Nope it takes three power cells per every five shots."

"That's insane, the most powerful Sniper the republic makes isn't even half that." he said looking down at the rifle with new respect.

"That's not even the half of it, this armor is standard issue to all basic Sith troopers and it has four times the processing power of my wrist comp." Carth's head jerked up in shock again.

"Come on I'll brief you on everything I learned once we get back to the apartment, lets get this all stowed and get out of here." He nodded and together we got the one set of armor and the rifle into Carth's gear bag while I kept the other in the shoulder bag. I got my wist comp off the armor and fit it back around my wrist as we left the abandoned apartment. It was coming up on 4:30 in the morning local time as we hit the pedwalk heading for home. I was exhausted now that the danger was over. With my mission complete I was having to use all my will power to keep walking even with the light misting rain still coming down soaking me through. There were almost no other pedestrians out and about. Some of the hard core fitness types, in waterproof synthetic jackets, jogging along with complete focus. But other than that we were it, not even a Sith patrol. We made it back to the apartment without any issues, I stripped my sodden clothes off and fell into my bunk completely uncaring about my nakedness, I barely got the blanket over myself before I was out like a light.

The dream played in my mind again from start to finish, though this time it didn't stop. I was looking down at Bastila as her hands started glowing over the Dark Lord. She was concentrating hard, her eyes closed, lips pursed as her hands slid over his body. Then she was in a dimly lit corridor running with her Lightsaber glowing in her hand. The Dark Lord was floating behind her as she ran down the hall. Then she was in a ship sitting in the cockpit, flicking switches while the Dark Lord lay on the floor next to her seat. The world skipped again and She was sitting cross legged on the floor, the Dark Lord's head in her lap, he was naked. Bastila was bent forward slightly with her hands on his chest, the angle blocked the Dark Lord's face but somehow I knew it was him. The world shifted again and this time I was looking into a room made of rust red and tan stone, along the back wall were a number of high backed chairs. On the floor before me were two men laying on pads on the floor. My view point was so near the ground all I could see were their feet. But next to them kneeling on the floor were two other men, both were old and balding. The major difference between them was skin color, the one sitting next to the man on my left was pale. While the one sitting next to the man on my right was dark. Both older men sat with their backs to a fifth figure. A small green alien sitting cross legged, floating in mid air, while an ethereal blue glow surrounded his body. As I watched, both of the old men leaned forward and put their hands on the men laying on the pads. One hand on the forehead and one on the chest. Then the blue glow started to form around the two older men as well. The world shifted again and I was above them all looking strait down. Both of the unconscious men laying on pads, had my face.


	6. Chapter 6 The Lowercity

Chapter 6

The Lowercity

I jerked awake sitting bolt upright in the bunk and looking around frantically. Carth was sitting at the table with one set of the Sith armor and the AMR in front of him on the table.

"Good you're up." he said without turning around.

"What time is it?" I asked shaking my head to clear it of the disturbing dream.

"14:25 local time." he said as he bent down to examine the rifle more closely. I stood letting the blanket fall away, still partially asleep I stretched and went into the refresher. It was only after answering the call of nature that I realized I was naked. _It's just setting a bad precedent at this point_. I shrugged and opened the door a crack to ask Carth to toss me some pants, when the very pare of pants I wanted zipped across the room to slam into my face.

"Thanks."

"Get dressed we have a lot to get done." I grinned and shut the door.

Once I got the door closed I couldn't help looking over to check the scar again. It was still there and the sight of it made my blood run cold. What was happening to me? There was no way the dreams could be real. I remembered my life, from my early childhood all the way to being stationed on the Endar Spire. There was no possible way all that could be false...right? But the dreams were feeling more and more real, and the vision of Bastila I saw in the apartment. I knew now that she was Bastila, I don't know who it was that I met down on Dantooine but it wasn't Bastila. For that matter what was I even doing on Dantooine? The Republic didn't have any kind of base on Dantooine, in fact the closest planet with a Republic outpost is Sinsang and it's nothing more than a minor staging area. Thinking back I couldn't remember how I got to Dantooine. I remember Colonel Krispen asking if I was willing to help the Jedi as we watched Telos burn from orbit, then nothing. The next memory is that sunny afternoon waiting for the Jedi next to the transport shuttle on Dantooine.

I stared into the mirror dumb struck by the realization for a long time. So long in fact that Carth got worried.

"Hey you fall in or something?" The muffled words brought me out of my shock. I looked down at myself, all my scars, now that I was really looking I couldn't actually remember how some of them got there, and some that should have been there were missing. A cold shiver ran down my spine. What happened to me? Were the dreams real? Was I even Rorick Jager? I wasn't sure, the only thing I did know is that Bastila most likely had the answers, and she was going to tell me, I just had to find her.

I stepped out to see Carth sitting at the small table looking me up and down with a concerned frown.

"You were making a lot of noise while you slept, though I wasn't about to wake you this time."

"Sorry about that, never have slept very well." Carth's face softened somewhat.

"Every good soldier has that problem." _Yeah if you only knew what was going on with me_. I just nodded and sat down across from him at the table.

"So any movement?" I asked motioning out the window.

"I haven't heard anything about your little stunt this morning. I don't think they have realized what you did yet." he looked smug at the statement.

"Not surprised, there's thousands of them in that tower, some level of control breaks down when you're dealing with and operation that size. Easier for things to fall through the cracks."

"Yeah and the troopers who 'misplaced' their gear" Carth said with air quotes, "Aren't going to be very quick to tell anyone about it, they will be to afraid of the punishment." I nodded and looked over the armor on the table.

"Have you tried it on yet?"

"Yeah about an hour ago. Do you have any idea how that damn thing works?" He asked looking down at the armor with deep suspicion. I shrugged.

"My best guess is Nanotech." I said with a grimace.

"Yeah that's what I was afraid of. We are still a long way off from usable Nanotech, I know that Czerka Corp. is working on micro manufacturing but it's supposed to be decades off."

"Yeah but it would explain how the Sith gathered such a huge armada so quickly. Nano-manufacturing would cut down the time scale by a huge margin depending on how advanced the Nanotech is." Carth nodded, troubled.

"How do we win against a force with tech like that?" he asked.

"Find the manufacturing station and destroy it." I said feeling grim. Some instinct inside me said that it would be much harder than it sounded.

"Station? Why not a planet?" he asked his eyes narrowing. I was taken aback, why a station indeed? I knew only the most basic theories behind Nanotech, for all I knew it could have been a planet. So why did I say station? After a moments pause I grinned doing my best to bluff my way through it.

"Micro-g environment, just figured it would be easier to work in space." I had no idea if that was true but I said it with all the conviction I could muster. I was questioning myself enough for both of us, I really didn't need him to question me too. After a moment Carth nodded slowly.

"Yeah you're right I know that there are a lot of Star ship components that require Micro-gravity to manufacture, good thinking." I relaxed inwardly, and sat back in the chair.

"So have you come up with a plan yet?" I asked.

"We need more Intel, I figured that we should make our way down to the lower city today and try to find out how to get into the under city, scout out the crash sites."

"Sounds good, I want find out who controls the lower city. It's got to be either the Exchange or some kind of gang organization, maybe even the Hutts. But whoever it is we are going to need their help to get into the Undercity."

"You don't think the armor will get us that far?" Carth asked.

"I doubt it, the Sith are looking for one of the most important Jedi in the order. If it were me, I wouldn't let anyone down there that I hadn't vetted very carefully. Makes it harder for anyone to get down there and help her escape. I bet the Sith have some kind of Identification card or something similar that's scanned before the lifts down to the Undercity will even open. Also makes it easier to track who you have down there and where they should be." Carth nodded in agreement.

"Well if we want to do anything today we better get going soon." Carth said.

"I need to eat something first, and I think it would be better if we didn't come out of this apartment dressed in Sith armor." I said.

"Yeah I was thinking about that earlier, there is a huge public refresher in the upper city Turbolift terminal. We could change there then make our way to the Lifts." I nodded agreement and stood.

"I'll get something to eat if you want to pack up the armor." Carth gave me a deadpan stare.

"Leave me to do the work huh?"

"Well I did the hard part getting the armor." I said with a grin.

"Yeah I'm sure that whats her name, Tara, wast it? I'm sure it was a terrible hardship to deal with her." Carth rolled his eyes and motioned to the door. "Go I'll pack the gear." I grinned and gave him a mocking salute before heading out.

While I waited in line at one of the food stalls I struck up conversations with the locals near me. Most of them recognized me from the raid the day before. I was thanked several times, slaps on the back were common. I was elevated to one of their own after saving Karn and his family. They were all happy to talk with me, answering my questions to the best of their ability. One of the local girls was especially helpful. Her name was Vespa, she was a pretty young human girl with short pink hair and a happy smile that never faltered. Her hazel eyes seeming to sparkle as she spoke. She was in a relationship with a man named Kirin who was a low level officer in one of the Lowercity gangs called the Hidden Beks. They were in a gang war with a rival gang called the Black Vulkars. According to Vespa her boyfriend was a hero of Taris and the Black Vulkars were worse than scum. She didn't know anything about the Undercity or the Sith but her boyfriend would and after the way we had helped Karn and his family she was sure that the Beks would return the favor. I thanked her for the information and took our food back to the apartment.

Carth was setting down the two largest gear bags next to the door as I came in.

"Took you long enough." he said with a scowl. I grinned back at him and handed him one of the take away cartons. His lips twitched as he took it and we sat down at the table. I filled him in about what Vespa had told me while we ate.

"Sounds like a good place to start anyway, though I doubt they will be as welcoming as she thinks they will." Carth said around a mouthful of noodles.

"Yeah probably not, but we are the enemy of their enemy, alliances have been built on less. And as you said it's a good place to start." I said as I picked up my wrist comp and connected to the planetary net. A local map was easy to find. At the far end of the Pedwalk connected to our tower about a Kilometer to the south was a small tram hub that led to one of the larger transport terminals. From that terminal we could take one of the passenger lifts down to the Lowercity.

Once Carth and I finished eating I pulled on my armor, it was a risk but I wasn't going into a potential war zone unprotected. I also didn't want to be stuck in Sith armor when we were trying to make contact with a gang. I clipped on my blaster belt then hefted on of the gear bags containing our Sith armor. Carth had only his jacket and a blaster belt, he didn't manage to get anything off the Endar Spire in the way of armor or weapons.

"Did you pack the Sith sniper?" I asked him as we headed for the exit.

"Yeah I have it in mine along with a couple concussion grenades..

"Do you want to stop and get some actual armor before we head down?" Carth paused for a second thinking, before nodding slowly.

"There was a decent suit of light combat armor at Kebla's shop we could swing by and pick it up. I should have thought to get myself some armor while we were there yesterday."

"I overlooked it too, but we have time if we hurry."

We headed strait over, Kebla was busy with a number of customers so we had to wait for a few minutes before she could break away. When she finally did she didn't look thrilled to see us.

"What do you two want?" she asked in a low tone.

"Just a set of light armor." I said holding with my best grin. She eyed use for a minute then motioned us to follow. She led us to the back of the shop where several large Transparisteel cases held armor sets on display.

"I have a couple that will fit." she pointed out two suits in separate cases. One was a very basic light body suit made out of treated fabric that was barely able to stop a knife. While the other was a black and red set of High grade Durasteel plating over a standard light body suit similar to the first suit but higher quality. Carth pointed to the second set and Kebla unlocked the case with the bio print scanner fitted to the side of the case. There was gleam in her eyes as Carth pulled the suit of the rack.

"Changing room?" he asked and Kebla pointed to a door at the back of the shop. She turned and grinned at me as Carth moved off. I groaned.

"How much?" I asked fearing the answer.

"That's my very best set, for you two I can let it go for 2000." my shoulders slumped as I held out the credit chit. Her self satisfied grin stayed in place as she took back some of her money. A loud whoop drew my attention to the customers milling around the store. A number of them were looking at the Vibroblades and blaster pistols.

"What's all this about?" I asked as I took the chit back and checked it's amount. Her grin widened.

"The dueling ring." I raised and eyebrow in question.

"We have dueling ring here on Taris, it used to be fights to the death but about 10 years ago they started changing over to non lethal fights. The last death match was about 5 years ago. But it's still a huge deal on Taris, we even send the stream to a few other worlds." An idea pricked at the back of my mind.

"How do you get into the fights?"

"An entrance fee, 500 credits to be registered then 100 credits per bout."

"That's all? Anyone can enter?"

"Why you want to try your luck?" she asked regarding me carefully.

"Maybe."

"Yeah anyone can enter. The fights work off a tier system. First tier is a 1000 credits for a victory one hundred for a loss. All the way up to tier 5 which is 10k for a victory and 1000 for a loss." she said as Carth emerged from the changing rooms in his new Armor.

"Thanks again for your help Kebla." I said distractedly taking a step back thinking on the ring.

"Yeah, pleasure as always." she said sounding unsure as Carth walked up to us.

"Fit okay?" I asked.

"Yeah good to go." he thanked Kebla and we headed out.

We made our way down the pedwalk to the transport hub. As we walked I filled him in on the fights Kebla told me about.

"Your not considering it are you?" He asked sounding almost offended.

"Not right now, but if we end up needing extra credits we now know of an extra possible income stream. After all we cleaned Kebla out. If we come across anything worth selling we will have to find another buyer." Carth didn't look convinced but he didn't argue either.

We passed a number of Sith patrols as we walked, but we weren't the only ones out in combat gear today. In fact some of various species out and about were using some pretty serious fire power. We past a Trandoshan in full battle armor with a heavy repeater. Compared to that Carth and I seemed almost harmless to the Sith patrols moving past us.

The transport hub itself was nothing more than a few benches and an elevated platform, next to the mag rail track. We stood off to one side of the platform and waited in silence while people started gathering around us. Twenty minutes later the Tram appeared to our left coming around one of the Sky towers at incredible speed. The thing must have been going 400kph. It slowed rapidly as it approached sliding smoothly up to the platform. The mass of bodies almost exclusively human spread out and allowed a stream of travelers to disembark before filing in. Hundreds of people shuffled about looking for a place to sit or stand as the train quickly filled. Less than five minutes later the sliding doors closed and the train sped away accelerating quickly. Twenty minutes and three stops later the train decelerated hard into the district transport hub.

Carth and I made filed out along with the majority of the other passengers and headed for intercity Turbolift concourse. A quick stop at the public refresher to change into our stolen armor and we headed back out to get in line for one of the smaller passenger lifts along with dozens of other Silver clad figures. There were almost no civilians in the lift terminal. But there were a number of what I guessed were mercenaries. Mostly human they stood about in small clumps slightly away from the Sith. They were largely in high class combat gear with high quality weapons, many of them had very advanced sensor packs clipped to their belts or onto helmets. While the Sith were almost silent in their uniform silver or crimson armor, the mercs were laughing and carrying on with good cheer. I guessed they were getting paid a lot for their services.

The wait for a lift down was long, there were only ten turbo lifts with a max capacity of about 40 to 50, depending on weight. I called up the local net using my armors HUD while we waited and found that the turbo lifts had become less and less common over the last 20 years. Before the Sith invaded the majority of traffic between city levels was no done by speeder. Only the industrial lifts still saw regular use, 100 square meter platforms with open sides that took almost 30 minutes to travel between levels. Not really practical when the passenger lifts could do it in 5. Each passenger lift was equipped with inertial dampeners which were phenomenally expensive. But it allowed them to make the almost 10 kilometer trip from the upper city all the way down to the Undercity in just under 15 minutes. Though only a few lifts still traveled passed the Lowercity down to ground level. The planets net only had ten such lifts listed as still active. Those that still could get down to ground level were only able to reach the Lowercity they were blocked off from going any higher. Probably to reduce the chance of the Rakghouls getting into the upper levels.

Eventually it was our turn, Carth and I stood near the back of the lift, surrounded by 40 Sith I tried to remain calm, easier said. My armor flashed up a medical alert, my heart rate was climbing. I opened a private channel to Carth as the lift doors slid closed.

"How you doing over there?" It took a moment before Carth responded and his voice was tense when he spoke.

"I'm surrounded by Sith, dropping toward the ground at ridiculous speed in a tin can. Doing great thanks for asking." I couldn't help the snort of laughter.

"I know how you feel, but this is the easy part we will be fine. It's going to be getting in with the gangs that I'm worried about." I said trying not to bump into the men standing next to me. Carth had nothing to say to that so we traveled the rest of the way in silence.

* * *

Bastila was laying on her cot looking up at the duracrete ceiling and counting the cracks for the 50th time. She thought about naming them to pass the time but she hadn't gotten quite that desperate yet. Her mind kept going back to the dream, her escape from Revan's flagship and the ritual that had implanted Revan's mind with the personality of the Republic soldier Rorick Jager. She had felt Revan's presence in the dream. Was he sharing her dreams through their bond? Or more troubling, was she sharing his? She shivered at the possibility.

At the time the councils plan had seemed so necessary, Revan was a threat to the whole Republic. But in the dream she had felt revolted by it. It had felt so wrong to do that to a person, in her opinion death would have been a mercy. But then she wasn't a master, she wasn't even officially a Knight yet. She knew she didn't have the right to question the councils decisions. But she couldn't shake the feeling that it had been wrong, and she had been a part of it.

She could feel him now, he felt closer, his feelings were clearer. His mind felt focused and controlled, he was hunting. The fact that he was hunting her made her feel something between excitement and dread. She had also felt him clearly some time in the night after Brejik had left her to lick her wounds. She had been startled awake by a feeling of lust so intense that she had gasped in surprise. It took her sleep addled brain a few moments to realize that the feeling had been coming from somewhere else. Then it had taken her minutes to be able to calm her ragged breathing and pounding heart. Revan's arousal had been so intense that it had left her shaken to her core. In all her 20 years of life she had never felt anything like it before. Never in her life had she so desperately wanted to experience lust and pleasure. It had taken all of her self control not to slide her hand between her legs to try to capture that experience. To feel and echo of what she sensed from Revan.

Fortunately the lust had faded after a few minutes, but smaller echos of it had plagued her all night making sleep almost impossible. She had never felt more resentful and envious in her life. She wanted to be the one with him, sharing in that overwhelming experience, she wanted to be the one making him feel that lust. The fact that she wanted it so badly deeply disturbed her. He was Revan, The Dark Lord of the Sith. She understood now that the force bond she had accidentally forged between them was much stronger than she had originally thought. Saving his life on the way back to Dantooine was the most challenging thing she had ever done with the Force. Using the Force in such an intense way on another person bound them together more closely then she had thought possible. She had never heard of a bond affecting a Jedi's emotions like this one was affecting her. Deep emotion like that led to the Dark side, allowing emotion that strong to rule you was the first steps down the dark path. That's what she had always been trained to believe. She couldn't let herself be controlled by feelings like those, she just couldn't. But by the Force she wanted to so badly.

She closed her eyes and let her mind seek his, drawing comfort and strength from his seemingly bottomless determination. At the same time she tried to forget the burning jealously for whoever had shared his bed last night. Instead she focused on the dream, was it his or hers? During the dream she had felt his presence as though he had been standing right beside her, she had also felt his shocked dismay at the end of the dream right before she woke feeling his residual fear. If Revan was already recalling those memories even in the form of dreams, even warped as they seemed to be. She had no idea how long the conditioning would hold. She was starting to fear that both she and the council vastly underestimated what Revan was capable of. She had never met anyone as strong with the Force as he was. Not even Master Vandar had Revan's strength. If he remembered who he truly was what would he do then? She was terrified of the answer.

* * *

The lift came to a gentle stop at the primary Lowercity transport hub, and dozens of Sith marched out in an orderly line. Carth and I walked purposefully away from the group huge gear bags slung over our shoulders as we headed for the public refreshers. The Lowercity refreshers weren't as bad as I had been expecting. Other than the tiles being covered in a layer of fine grime nothing else was different from it's Uppercity counterpart. We changed quickly and made our way out of the terminal and down the huge pedwalk. The pedwalk too was almost identical to the ones in the Uppercity. Other than scattered trash and debris, the major difference was looking up to see a smooth Grey ceiling instead of blue sky. It was an unnerving feeling, like being in a cave. Artificial light, lit up the world around us. The sky towers we could see had the same hundred meter holodisplays flashing advertisements. While twenty meter tall street lamps lit up the pedwalk. Aliens were everywhere. From what I could see they actually outnumbered humans down here. More than a dozen different species passed us as we walked.

I connected to the planetary net with my wrist comp, but the Hidden Beks didn't have any kind of listing anywhere. There were a few scattered news articles about them but nothing that pointed to a base of operation. So I did what I always do when I needed Intel on a world, I looked up the nearest Cantina. Fortunately it was close by, unfortunately people were streaming out of the side path that my map was telling me to take. As we turned off onto the side path we came face to face with the gang war. About 30 meters down the path two groups faced off. One side was dressed in mostly black while the other was in various shades, most of them were armed with light combat suits and short swords but a couple carried vibroswords and had higher grade combat armor. As the two groups squared off the alley emptied. People disappeared down smaller side alleys between buildings, until the pedwalk was completed empty of anyone other than the gang members. Carth and I approached slowly getting in range to hear them.

"The Vulkars will crush you, pathetic scum." said a tall black skinned human male standing at the head of the group in black.

"You think so? The Beks never back down, so why don't you quit talking and do something about it? Or are you too much of a coward to attack anyone that can fight back?" a shorter blue skinned Twi'lek responded from the front of the other group.

The large black skinned human bellowed in rage and charged the Twi'lek raising his vibrosword above his head. The two groups charged each other clearly intent on playing kickball with the other groups severed heads.

"Do we intervene here?" I asked Carth as I pulled my blasters from their holsters.

"I don't know which side to help, who knows if that girl up top was telling you the truth, or for that matter maybe her boyfriend was lying to her about who the good guys are. I would hate to accidentally kill members of the gang that's best set up to help us." He said as he pulled his own blaster. I reluctantly agreed but I still moved forward a few meters to get a better look.

While the majority of the gang members looked evenly matched the large human leading the Vulkars was obviously very skilled with his vibrosword. The smaller Twi'lek was already bleeding from a couple of deep wounds on both his left arm and his right thigh. It was obvious he was going to lose and he knew it. In a desperate bid he charged the bigger man only for the Vulkar leader to side step his charge and whip his sword up with surprising speed. The Twi'leks head thumped down to the ground quickly followed by his body, blood spraying from his neck in a morbid shower. With the leader of the Beks dead the Vulkar leader went to help his men. Screams from both the wounded and dying quickly filled the air as he brutally slashed through the members of the rival gang. Two of Beks broke and fled only to be gunned down by one of the Vulkars with a small hold out blaster. While the last one, a human kid no more than 17 or 18 knelt before the Vulkar leader begging for his life. He was sobbing tears running down his cheeks as he held up hands. With a malicious grin the Black skinned man kicked the boy in chest knocking him onto his back.

Rage burned to life in my gut, the look of utterly evil glee in the mans eyes as he raised his sword above the sobbing kid made me see red. Before I even knew what I was doing I was running. Lifting my blastera and taking aim on the sick bastard. I opened fire. The first two shots missed but the third hit the man in the thigh just as he brought down the sword. The man screamed in rage and pain as his leg buckled dropping him to one knee and making his sword go wide missing the kid by a full meter.

I bellowed in wordless rage as I kept poring fire into the group of Vulkars. They turned on mass to see a lone figure charging at them with death in his eyes, a couple of them rallied quickly pulling blasters and taking aim. But most of them froze in shock. It was all I needed, the two that pulled the small holdout blaster went down under my barrage. Small holes appearing in them as the lasers burnt clean through their bodies.

"Get him you idiots!" the Vulkar leader screamed as he tried to get to his feet. Two more went down before my energy cells ran dry. The other six Vulkars snapped out of it and charged me while the leader tried to prop himself up with his sword. Without slowing I holstered my blasters and shrugged off my gear bag letting it drop to the ground. I dove forward into a roll as I passed one of the dead Beks. I snagged the dead man's short sword as I came out of the roll and charged on. The first Vulkar to reach me skidded to a stop and brought down his vibroblade in heavy overhand strike. I side stepped whipping my own blade forward driving it clean through his neck to sever his spine. Spinning to the right I dodged a thrust from another Vulkar to my left, yanking my blade free at the same time. Pivoting with the momentum of my spin I snapped out a kick connecting with the mans knee shattering it instantly. He screamed in agony and fell clutching the injury. The third Vulkar coming at me was a short Rodian. He stabbed out quickly thrusting his blade at my stomach. I parried the thrust and slammed my armored fist into one of his large eyes. He staggered back shrieking in pain, I stepped in and drove my sword through his gut, he let out a choked gurgling noise as I pulled my sword free and plucked the blade out of his lifeless hand. On instinct I rolled away to the side just in time to dodge a strike that would have taken my head clean off. I came out of the roll and spun to face the man just in time to parry a strike aimed at my legs. As I brought my other blade up to strike, his head jerked to the side and a puff of red mist exploded from his temple. I turned to see Carth coming toward me with his blaster aimed past me at the other two Vulkars still left standing. His face was a grim mask as he stalked forward. The last two men saw Carth come to stand next to me blaster held at the ready. They glanced at each other then turned and ran.

"Shoot." I said in an icy voice. Instead Carth holstered his blaster and looked around at the carnage.

"I don't shoot people in the back." he said in a soft voice. I glared at him for a long moment before growling with frustration and turning to see the big Vulkar leader get to his feet.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" He said with a manic sneer of demented rage. The kid he had been about to kill scrambled to his feet and looked at me with wide eyes before disappearing down a side alley. "You just made an enemy of the Vulkars, there is no where you will be safe now. I will find you and I will k..." His words were cut off by the sword blade that slammed into his forehead with enough force to knock him off his feet.

"Impressive if a bit dramatic." Carth said as I lowered my arm.

"He had to die." I replied levelly. Carth just nodded before turning back to the Vulkar laying on the ground still clutching his leg and whimpering piteously. Slowly and carefully I walked over to stand at his feet. Then using the same slow deliberate movements I drew my blaster and changed the energy cell. The man started begging as I slapped the new cell home and powered up the blaster. He was crying and blubbering begging for his life as I lowered the barrel to point at his injured knee.

"I'm going to ask you some questions now." I paused feeling like the worst shit in the galaxy. Now that the rage had past the idea of torturing this guy, who upon closer inspection was probably no more than 20 years old, made me feel like a monster. But he might have information that we needed, and despite how it made me feel, I would get those answers. "You are going to answer my questions. Do you understand?" I asked in a low threatening tone. The kid whimpered and nodded his head as he soiled himself.

"Good, do you know who captured the Republic soldiers who crashed in the Undercity?" I asked in the same low tone as I knelt down next to him.

"Yeah man we got them, beat the Beks down there." he whimpered, pathetic in his desperation to answer.

"Did you get a Jedi?"

"Yeah, for sure a girl, heard she was really pretty from some of the guys." he nodded starting to relax because he could answer my questions.

"Hair color?" I asked.

"What?" He looked confused. I sighed and put the blasters barrel directly over his broken knee. He started whimpering again and shaking his head.

"What was the Jedi's hair color?" I asked in a patient tone as though I were talking to a child.

"Ahhh… Fuck man I don't know..."

"Think really, really hard." I said dropping my voice to a whisper. The kid closed his eyes and shook with fear as he rocked back and forth whimpering.

"It's brown, Fuck man her hair is brown." he almost squeaked as his eyes popped open. I gave him a small smile and stood.

"Good..." I purred threateningly and the kid cringed back. I felt like I might throw up from the fear pouring off the kid.

"One last question, and this one, you really don't want to get wrong." I could feel Carth hovering close by behind me as I spoke, surprisingly he didn't try to intervene, either he was made of tougher stuff than I thought or he knew I wouldn't actually torture the kid. "Where is she?" I said so softly that the kid had to lean towards me to hear. He started sobbing and right then I knew, he had no idea. I figured as much, there's no way I would ever tell a kid like this where I was hiding an imprisoned Jedi. So the leader of the Black Vulkars' was at least smart enough to hide Bastila and protect her location. I stood unwilling to waste any more time on him.

"Good job kid, but you should find a real job before this life gets you killed. The next guy that comes along wont be so nice." with that I turned and walked over to the Vulkar leader. I checked him over, searched his pockets, but only came up with a couple hundred credits and his Ident card. I took his Vibrosword and its scabbard then searched the other black Vulkars. Spoils of war, the dead didn't need it. Carth helped out with the grim task, speeding up the process. We packed the loot into our bags and moved on leaving the corpses and the sobbing Vulkar as we headed for the Cantina. Behind us people started emerging from the thin back alleys to swarm what was left. As we reached the Cantina fights started breaking out as people argued over who should get a credit chit, or who should get a Vibroblade. I shook my head disheartened as we went inside.

"The 'Bantha's Boast' was an almost exact copy of the Cantina we went to the day before. The only exceptions being, the class of the patrons, the dancing girls, and the room with all the holo screens was instead filled with mercs, bounty hunters and one huge Hutt sitting on the raised dais. There were no high fashion clothes, people down here were lucky to have clothes that fit, or weren't full of holes. While the dancing girls were all completely naked, gyrating across the stage and swinging around on poles. Most of the serving girls were also at least topless with a few of them walking around carrying trays while completely naked. All of the impressive feminine flesh on display was a bit of a distraction, especially since a number of them were probably working girls. Carth was mortified, glancing around quickly then staring at the floor or the ceiling while his face started turning pink. I couldn't help the grin at his discomfort, the whole place screamed 'sex, drugs and a wild night'. It was all a bit much for someone as strait laced as poor Carth. I clapped my hand on his shoulder and grinned when he turned to look at me.

"Hey you might even get lucky this time, if she costs to much, don't worry I'll spot you." Carth just glared at me with resentment.

"You're an asshole." he said before shrugging off my hand and heading for the bar. My grin just widened as I followed. At the mouth of the Pazaak room there was a disturbance of some kind. A group of people clustering the area blocked our view. When we finally pushed through them an almost comical sight greeted us. A group of 4 Rodians were facing down the shortest non-dwarf human I had ever seen. He could have only been just over a meter and a half tall, he was bulky though. Wide through the shoulders and chest, he was also in the finest clothes of anyone in the Cantina. Under his very expensive black leather jacket he was wearing some kind of body armor that I had never seen before. It was black and ridged looking almost like muscle fibers, it seemed to shift and flex as he planted his feet and looked at the interlopers. He was wearing a strange hat with tabs falling down next too both temples. But the interesting thing was the visor he wore over his eyes. The visor I had seen before, Blastech I-500 interface visor. It had basically the same functions as the Sith armors HUD. Multiple vision ranges weapon targeting integration, and it could be interfaced with smart armor to monitor a persons vital signs. The base model was selling for around 3000 credits with the top the line hitting somewhere around 10k. Only the most successful bounty hunters and mercenaries could even consider affording them. Or members of the exchange, criminal organizations spared no expense when it came to their top enforcers.

The Rodians were honking and squeaking at him in their version of yelling as we broke through the crowd.

"You think you can just get away with killing one of our brothers Calo?" the Rodian in front squeaked in their strange native tongue. That was a surprise I understood the Rodian but I had no memory of ever learning the language. The thought made me shudder.

"One." the short man said in a flat tone, that should have told the aliens all they needed to know. They apparently weren't smart enough to recognize the danger however.

"What is that? 'One' is that supposed to be a joke little man?" the alien sneered, at least I think it was sneering Rodian's facial expressions were hard to catch.

"Two..."

"You still counting? What like you are really going to scare me with that?"

"Three..."

"Fine Calo you think you're hot shit short stuff," the Rodian put his hand on his blaster. "Then let's see wh..." The short man whipped out two heavy blaster pistols that looked almost as powerful as mine, and fired four lightning fast shots. Two bolts flew from each blaster and all four Rodians crumpled to the floor. The whole thing happened in a fraction of a second. I grinned, not because of the dead aliens but because they answered a question for me. This Calo guy was obviously Exchange. He was too good and too confident that murdering people in public wouldn't come back on him. That combined with his obvious wet-wiring (no human had natural reflexes that fast) meant high level enforcer.

Calo turned and walked toward the exit the same emotionless expression never flickered on his face. I glanced at him as he walked past but made no move to stop him. At some point I would probably need to contact the Exchange but for now it would be better to keep as low a profile as possible.

I stepped over the dead Rodians and headed toward the room with the bar. As we walked I noticed a gorgeous dark blue Twi'lek watching us as we walked. She was sitting at a table with a very large Wookiee eating some kind of huge steak. As we past them the girl looked up and smiled at me, mischief sparkled in her eyes. I couldn't help a return smile as I changed course. When I got a couple feet away I motioned at her table.

"May I?" she smiled up at me for a long moment before nodding slowly. For a moment I forgot what I was supposed to be doing, She was the most beautiful Twi'lek I had ever seen. Late teens, maybe twenty, high sharp cheek bones, thin strait nose slightly up tilted. Full sensual lips with a delicate chin and elegant jawline wrapped up into a perfect heart shaped face. I snapped out of it and slid my gear bag off my shoulder setting it on the floor, as she kicked a chair out for me to sit.

"Hello I'm Rorick and you look like a person that has her finger on the pulse around here." I said as she sat back in her chair showing off a very fine physique. Tight black shirt that didn't quite cover a honed abdomen and emphasized high perky breasts with no bra. Over the shirt she wore a slick brown leather vest. Tan cargo pants and standard black combat boots rounded out the look. I was having a very hard time looking only at her face.

Her grin widened as she spoke. "I do at that, lived down here most of my life. Why you have some questions?" Her voice with high, clear and musical with a soft accent I couldn't quite place. She was incredible.

"That I do, feel like answering some for me?" I asked grinning back.

We sat there for a moment just looking at each other. Every once in a while you come across a person that just clicks with you. Someone that you feel a connection with for reasons you don't understand. It hadn't happened to me since I was a child and I was not expecting it to happen to me in a place like this, but something about this little Twi'lek drew me to her, and at the time I had no idea why.

I held out my hand to shake, "Pleased to meet you."

She held my gaze for a long moment with that incredible smile before reaching out to shake my hand. "Mission Vao." My skin tingled where it touched hers and she glanced down at our hands then back up to my face looking faintly surprised before letting go and sitting back in her seat.

I cleared my throat and motioned to Carth "This is Carth, we just arrived in the area and are looking to get our bearings." I said as Carth pulled up a chair from another table to sit just behind me. Her enchanting grin flashed again. But before she could speak the Wookiee broke in with his loud growling roar of a language.

"Mission why are you toying with the human? It's disrupting my dinner." I grinned looking from the Wookiee to Mission.

"So Mission is it? Unusual name but I have heard stranger." Mission's eyes widened slightly then took on an appraising air.

"Not as unusual as a human who can speak Zaalbar's language." she said looking me over with a new appreciation. I shrugged.

"Been around the block a time or two, one of the first things I learned was 'Never trust words spoken in a tongue you don't understand yourself'. So I spent a lot of time learning every language I could."

"Yeah you look like you've been around the block several times." she said in a dry tone.

I chuckled grinning. "I'm only a few years older than you."

"How many is a few?" she asked with a wry grin. I opened my mouth to say something smart but she went on before I could. "So what kind of questions do you have about our beloved Lowercity? No matter what they are, you came to the right person. The Exchange, swoop gangs, bounty hunters, I know it all." her voice took on a bragging quality, she was obviously very proud of her knowledge and contacts. I looked her over for a moment studying her youthful face, deciding on my answer. She looked like a smug young hot head that thought quite well of herself. She also seemed to have pride in her place down here and in the Lowercity itself. Probably not a Sith spy, but she could very well be working for a gang or the Exchange. Either way I needed information and she seemed willing to give it, so I took a chance.

"We need a way into the Black Vulkars' base." I said then sat back watching her reaction. All amusement left her face and she studied me with a thoughtful expression for a long moment as her Wookiee companion continued to devour the large cut of meat on his plate.

"That's dangerous for more than one reason." she finally said sitting forward, her head tails twitched in confused agitation. "Why in the world would you want into that pit of vipers?"

"Looking for something, other than that I can't say." she just looked at me for a long moment before nodding slowly.

"Okay I can respect that, I can't get you in there but the Hidden Beks probably can. They have a base not far from here. Talk to Gadon Thek tell him Mission sent you. He might help you, he might not, The Beks are at war with the Black Vulkars, never been this bad before, so I don't know how far you will get, but he's your best shot." With that she stood and motioned to the Wookiee. He grumbled under his breath, something about 'Never getting to finish a meal', then stood.

"Yeah we saw that war first hand on our way here I think. A group in black gear attacked a smaller group about half a Kilometer to the south." She took a small step closer, muttering a curse under her breath.

"Did you see who was leading the guys in black?" she asked.

"Yeah a big dark skinned man, he seemed to enjoy killing."

"Toth, he's a total psycho, but deadly. Did any of the Beks survive?"

"Only one a young male human, didn't get a good look at him. Toth was going to execute him but we stepped in before he could." She looked at me in surprise for a long moment studying me.

"You stepped in?" she finally asked.

"Yeah killed a few including Toth, three escaped." she looked incredulous as she looked Carth and I over, new respect dawning in her expression.

"Follow this Pedwalk to the north, about a kilometer down you will see a really cranky dark skinned woman guarding a nondescript door in an old warehouse. When she tells you to get lost tell her you saved a Hidden Beck from Toth and killed him. She hated him enough that she will probably let you in just for that, if she doesn't tell her I sent you." with that she nodded and turned slipping through the crowd. Zaalbar followed almost 8 feet of massive furry muscle moving with a surprising grace for a being so large.

"That went well." I said getting to my feet and hefting my gear bag up over my shoulder.

"Assuming she was telling the truth." Carth replied unconvinced.

"She was."

"How do you know?" he asked looking skeptical.

"You're just going to have to trust me on this one." Because I wasn't sure myself how I knew. I waited until they were lost in the crowd then looked down at my wrist comp. 15:50 local time, plenty of time left to find these 'Hidden Beks' and see if they could be of any use. "Let's head out no reason to hang around here." Carth nodded and we left the Cantina heading North.

The Hidden Beks' base was indeed a nondescript warehouse, in fact 'nondescript' was kind term for the rundown building. It looked as though it might collapse any second. Pocked and rusted Durasteel walls gleamed dully in the artificial light. An alley ran down the south side of the building to service a large loading bay, while the eastern side facing the Pedwalk had a Human sized door in the middle of the building. In front of that door stood a tall dark skinned woman that glared daggers at us as we approached.

"Get lost." she said as soon as we were close enough to hear.

I ignored her and continued forward. She frowned and dropped her hand to the blaster hanging at her hip.

"You deaf?" she asked sounding annoyed. "I said get lost."

"Can't do that I'm afraid." I replied lightly as I came to a halt a couple meters in front of her.

"Yes you can, private property keep moving." the woman had hard eyes, the kind of eyes I was used to seeing in veteran soldiers. She would fight and die to defend that door, that much was obvious.

"I saved a young man that works for you and killed Toth just a little while ago." I said letting my voice harden. "I would think doing those two things would be enough to earn me a conversation with Gadon."

Her expression changed looking thoughtful as she eyed us suspiciously. "You killed Toth, how?"

"I thew a short sword into his forehead hard enough to knock him off his feet." I replied calmly. After a long moment a reluctant grin cracked her face.

"I knew that psychopath would pick on someone to big for him one day. But why would you get involved with our war?" she asked with a hand still on her blaster.

"The Vulkars have something of mine, I need help to get it back." I said looking her in the eyes, letting my own determination show. After a long moment she nodded slowly with a thoughtful expression.

"Okay I can except that, go on in. But if this is a trick you wont come back out." she said waving us forward. I nodded and walked past her through the door she guarded.

A dull glow illuminated what looked to be a shipping and receiving center of some kind. A long counter stretched across the far wall, while on either side of us stools were bolted to the floor. Glancing about I noticed another door at the left side of the far wall and headed for it.

"How far are we going to trust these people?" Carth asked.

"As far as we have too, getting Bastila is all that matters right now Carth."

"I suppose, I just find it difficult to trust in a gang. Especially one that operates out of a place like this." he said looking around in disgust. I just smiled, hoping that this place was run down on purpose, to hide what it was rather than being a sign of incompetence, or negligence.

As we stepped through the door in the far wall my worries were banished. Bright clean metal gleamed in the bright light of a hall that lead deeper into the building. Smiling, feeling hope that we might finally be on the right track we headed deeper. A door at the end of the hall opened into a massive room three stories high that bustled with activity. People of a number of races moved about the room. Large crates were neatly stacked at the far northern end of the room. At the southern end near the large bay doors, a number of techs worked on swoop bikes and speeders, the sound of power tools and welders echoed around us.

"Well I didn't expect this." Carth said looking around with respect.

"That's the idea." a commanding female voice said, drawing our attention to a pretty pale skinned Twi'lek as she strode toward us. She had a stern expression on her face but she didn't look hostile so I headed over to meet her.

"You must be the two Dane told us about." she said coming to stop and giving us a quick once over. She was obviously important around here, a lieutenant maybe. "So you killed Toth and saved one of my men, why?"

"I don't stand by and watch kids get slaughtered if I can help it." I said, looking her in the eyes.

"Decent enough reason I suppose, though that doesn't explain why you came here." she replied.

"The Vulkars have something of mine and Mission told me you might be able to help me get it back." She let out a small sigh at Mission's name before shaking her head.

"Some day that girl is going to bight off more than that Wookiee can chew for her." she glanced back and studied us thoughtfully for a long moment before nodding slowly. "We might be able to help, but that is for Gadon to decide. Come with me I'll take you to him." she turned and headed toward the far wall of the massive room, not waiting to see if we would follow. She led us through the bustling warehouse as people rushed back and forth carrying crates and tools in stained overalls and light combat suits. Most of the people we past were armed small Vibroblades and hold out blasters hung from the hips of most. Most were human but their were a number of aliens moving about as well. They seemed to be well disciplined and purposeful as they went about their tasks. This was no ordinary gang, it felt like a bustling military base not a ragtag group of thugs. I strode forward sure now that we were on the right track.

The Twi'lek woman led us to a door in the back wall and knocked once. "Come." a voice said from behind the door. She opened it and led us through. Inside we found ourselves in a small neat office. Basic and utilitarian it looked more like a Base commanders office, not a gang lords. Behind a good sized wooden desk in the middle of the room a dark skinned man in his later middle years, sat looking over a sheaf of papers. He glanced up as we entered. He would have been a classically handsome man if it weren't for a large scar that led from the middle of his forehead down over his right eye and half way down his face. Though more striking than that were his eyes. They were artificial, bright silver orbs with glowing florescent green pupils. Despite myself my own eyes widened in surprise, why would a man with obvious resources chose to have implants like those when you could get artificial eyes that looked totally natural?

A small smile turned up the corners of his mouth at my reaction. "To unnerve people." he said setting the papers down on his desk.

"What?" I asked still studying him.

"The first question is always 'Why wouldn't I get better implants'", he said smiling. "The answer is to unnerve people." I nodded slowly, it made sense, a person in his position could probably use those eyes to great effect when dealing with unsavory types. He waved us forward and motioned to two chairs in front of his desk. The Twi'lek went to go stand at his side as Carth and sat letting our gear bags thunk to the floor next to our chairs.

"So you must be the men Dane mentioned, killing Toth was quite the achievement, rarely have I ever seen a man as good with a blade." he said studying us thoughtfully. He steepled his fingers, sitting with the quiet patience and controlled readiness of a soldier. I would have bet anything that he had been an officer in the Republic Navy, before making his way here.

"You should get out more." I said with a small smile. Toth had been good with a blade, though he was nothing compared to Sith Shock troops or Mandalorian warriors. Gadon cocked his head slightly before nodding slowly.

"Maybe I should at that." He studied me for another long moment before sitting back looking completely at ease, though only a fool would have taken him for relaxed. "So what is it we can do for someone with your skills?" he asked.

"We need help getting into the Black Vulkar base." I replied settling myself more comfortably into the chair.

"Why would you want that?"

"They have something of mine." I said glancing at Carth, he looked on edge. I wondered idly if Carth came to the same conclusion about this man I had.

"None of that, if we are going to help you with something like this, I want to know exactly what I'm getting myself and my people into." He said giving me a stern look, that expected instant obedience. Definitely an officer, I looked over to Carth who glanced back at me, he nodded. I looked back at the man behind the desk and weighed my options. We might be able to find another way into the Vulkar base but it would cost us precious time. It had only been a few days since the crash. But a lot could happen to someone in that time if they were held by a hostile force, especially to a woman. We didn't have time to look for another option. Taking a deep breath I nodded to myself, we were committed now.

"I'm Sergeant Rorick Jager, and this is Lieutenant Carth Onasi. We are on a mission to rescue a captive Jedi sir." I said as I straitened in the chair, treating him like a superior officer. Gadon just nodded looking thoughtful for a moment before waving a hand.

"Gadon Thek, Captain, Republic Navy, retired. At ease son, I'm not an officer anymore." I nodded and leaned back in the chair. "I know someone that can get you into the Vulkar compound but you wont find the Jedi there." he said motioning to the Twi'lek woman who had been standing quietly watching the exchange. She nodded and went to a cabinet on the wall, opening a drawer she pulled something out and brought it back to Gadon. He took it and unfolded it before laying it out on the desk. Carth and I both leaned forward to get a better look. It was a large detailed floor plan outlining a what I assumed was the Vulkar compound.

"They stopped keeping prisoners there soon after Brejik declared war on us. We know the base too well, they moved all prisoners to an off site location that we thus far haven't been able to discover." He said sounding frustrated.

"May I?" I asked motioning toward the floor plan. Gadon nodded and lifted my wrist comp scanning the plan to make a digital copy.

"You didn't say no to our request, so I assume you have some ideas sir?" Carth asked looking over the plans. Gadon smiled grimly.

"I know of a way to get you what you want but you probably wont like it." he said.

"How's that?" I asked.

"The season opener is coming up in the next few days. Brejik will be putting your Jedi up as a prize for the first place finisher." he said looking sad for a moment.

"Why would he do that?" Carth asked sounding dumbfounded.

"His pride, he thinks that his swoop is unbeatable, putting her up as a grand prize sends a message. He is telling everyone else who might enter that they can't beat him." regret and frustration tinged his voice.

"Why is he so confident?" I asked confused. I had seen swoop racing on a number of occasions, it was a dangerous and lucrative sport. Even if he had a cutting edge bike there were any number of things that could cost someone a race, not just speed.

"He stole a prototype accelerator module from us. That combined with his best pilot Kine Corso leaves him in a very strong position. As it stands he is unbeatable, Kine is too good of a pilot to be beaten with that module powering his swoop." Gadon explained.

"You want us to steal the Prototype back?" I asked guessing at the direction of his thoughts. He nodded looking grim.

"You will never find the Jedi before the season opener, and if you win he will have to hand her over. Even if he claims you cheated, it wont matter."

"Say we were willing to consider this, how would we go about getting into the base?" I asked.

"Mission Vao knows a way inside their base, she can..." before he could explain farther the Twi'lek woman interrupted.

"Mission! Gadon you must be joking, she's only a child." She sounded shocked and indignant. She glared down at Gadon with a look that should have made him burst into flames.

"You will watch your tone when you speak to me Zaerdra." Gadon said in a soft but firm tone that made her anger melt almost instantly.

"I'm sorry Gadon, but Mission? She is too young for something like this." She said in a much more respectful tone.

"Mission and Zaalbar have been roaming the Undercity for years. She is one of the best marksman I have ever seen, not to mention how dangerous Zaalbar is. If the Rakghouls haven't been able to kill her after all this time do you really think she can't take care of herself?" Zaerdra opened her mouth to object further but Gadon narrowed his eyes and her mouth snapped shut. She stood fuming but said nothing else. Gadon nodded satisfied and turned back to us.

"Mission was the one that sent us to you, but she said she couldn't help us get inside." I said feeling suspicion worm up inside me.

"Oh she knows a way, have no doubt of that. But she is smart enough to keep that to herself. If a Vulkar found out she knew how to get into their base, they would undoubtedly try to kill her." he explained.

I nodded feeling slightly foolish for not seeing that myself.

"Do you know where she is then?" Carth asked.

"She was seen heading down to the Undercity which is fine for our purposes. The entrance to the Vulkar base is in the Undercity sewers. The problem will be getting past the Sith security check to get down there." he said.

"We have Sith trooper armor but I doubt that will be enough to get past that security check." I said studying him. Gadon smiled and reached into a drawer on the right hand side of his desk. He came back out with a small black square of Plasteel. He held it up for us before setting it on his desk.

"This is an A grade security pass, it will give you free access between City levels and access to private speeders."

"We will need more than one, I'm not going to attempt this alone." I said eyeing the security pass.

"It will cover up to five people. We…" Gadon paused for a moment considering his words before continuing, "Borrowed this one from a mercenary team, it doesn't matter who carries it so long as one of you has it when you come across Sith security checks."

I nodded thoughtfully considering, assuming he was telling the truth it sounded like exactly what we needed. "What do you want in return?" I asked looking back up into his unsettling eyes.

"The Sith armor." he said simply. I had expected as much though I still paused thinking. Gadon had all the power in this situation and he knew it. We came asking him for help, and while he obviously wanted us to get that Prototype back. He would be fine without it in the long run. Carth and I however needed to get to Bastila as quickly as possible before Brejik wised up and sold her to the Sith.

Finally I nodded, "We don't have much choice, looks like we will have to trust each and work together." Gadon nodded satisfied.

As Carth and I pulled the Sith armor out of our packs Zaerdra left the room. Just as we were finished stacking the armor by the door she came back with a large pale man who collected the armor in two massive arms and left without saying a word.

"Do you have any idea where in the Undercity Mission might be?" I asked as I sat back down and held out my hand for the security pass. Gadon handed it over with a thoughtful look.

"Does that wrist comp have a homing function?" he asked looking down at my arm.

I nodded lifting it so he could get a better look. "Five kilometer radius on most electronic signals."

"Good I'll give you her com code, she should be close by the Undercity village. No more than a kilometer I would wager." He said as he wrote a string of numbers on a scrap of paper before handing it over to me. I went into my wrist comp's storage function and input the string. Then activated the homing function and set to background mode. It would alert me as soon as she came in range.

"Thank you for your help sir, if there's nothing else we had better be on our way." I said standing and shouldering my much lighter gear bag.

"Good hunting." Gadon said and held out a hand. I took it and shook, Carth did the same. With a nod I turned and led the way back out of the stronghold.

By the time we made it back to the Turbolift terminal the place was packed. Civilians and Sith crowded the terminal complex. Shining silver and red figures glinting in the over bright artificial light. They stood in stark contrast with the normal people milling around them. There was an air of anxiety that hung heavy in the air as we made our way through the crowd toward the far end of the concourse. The only Turbolift that still went down to the Undercity from this district was a mid sized cargo model that was retrofitted for passengers. Several automated turrets sat in front of the lift along with two Sith heavy troopers and an officer.

As Carth and I approached, the officer raised a hand for us to halt. "Security pass." he said in a clipped tone. This was the moment of truth, time to find out how reliable Gadon really is. I pulled the pass from a pocket in my armor and handed it over. The officer took the pass and waved it in front of his own wrist comp, before looking down at the small screen. After a moment he raised an eyebrow in surprise, then handed it back.

"You're cleared the trip takes about six minutes, be careful down there." with that he waved us forward toward the ten meter square lift. We walked past and stepped onto the platform. After a moment of waiting the mass of Durasteel jerked then started down toward the darkness of the Undercity.


	7. Chapter 7 Allies

Chapter 7

Allies

Blackness surrounded the lift as we descended through the superstructure of the Lowercity. A single glow bulb hanging from the lift's cage, provided only dim illumination. I could barely make out the far side of the lift from where we stood. As we waited I dropped my pack to the ground and pulled Toth's Vibrosword from it. I strapped the blade across my back, leaving it within easy reach over my right shoulder. I straightened and shouldered my pack, as the lift dropped free of the Lowercity's superstructure.

The black featureless walls of the lift shaft made way for a dreary twilight. The light in this immense space came from a Sky hole about two Kilometers to the west. A massive shining pillar of light over a Kilometer wide, shone down into the bleak cavern of the Undercity. Despite myself I was struck by the incongruous beauty of the sight. Surrounded by Grey twilight the pillar of sunlight seemed all the more vibrant and beautiful.

Carth moved to the railing and looked down into the darker twilight below. I moved to stand next to him, looking down. At that height the ground far below was still and indistinct dark Grey blur. But far down there, nearly directly below us a group of dim lights spread out against the dark backdrop. The village was much larger than I expected. The lights spread out in every direction like a warped night sky, little yellow and orange lights, glowing stars against the Grey.

"There is beauty almost everywhere if you are willing to look." I whispered looking down. I didn't think I had spoken loud enough for Carth to hear, but he responded.

"Yes." His voice was soft as he gazed down into the lights far below. We rode the lift in silence as the lights grew closer. Soon the village became more distinct. Clusters of buildings in a rough pattern spreading out from a central structure, several times larger than any other building I could see. Most of the buildings seemed to be cobbled together, shanties and huts. Scrap metal and lumber seemed to be the building material of choice. As we got closer however I noticed that most of the buildings, no matter how patchwork stood strait and square. The people who lived here obviously took pride in themselves and their homes. They might not be able to make their dwellings to a high standard, but they did the very best they could. I found myself nodding in respect as I studied the small city. It was a city, thousands of patchwork structures spread out into the gloom. Small dark shapes moved between the buildings. My eyes widened as I watched, there seemed to be tens of thousands of those dark shapes moving in the gloom. How many people lived down there?

A few minutes later the lift shuddered to a halt at true ground level, on a Permacrete pad. Makeshift gates on the far side of the lift squealed slowly open. _Maybe we should try to find a way down in a speeder next time._ I thought shuddering as we stepped down off the death trap. We stood in a small, temporary loading area. Off to the left stood a dozen squat basic military transport speeders, and a few basic single passenger speeder bikes with small cargo spaces in the rear. Surrounding the whole area stood a quick-assemble fence, basic Durasteel chain link five meters high, separated the small City from the loading area around the Turbolift. Inside the fence stood pillars every ten meters or so topped with small auto turrets. A very basic staging area that could have been thrown up and ready for use in just a few hours. Even so, by setting up the staging area they made clear just how determined they were to capture Bastila. The fact that it was still there meant they hadn't gotten her yet, which meant the Vulkars still had her.

I motioned to the speeders, "Gadon said our security pass would allow us access to the speeder network, let's see if we can use one." Carth turned and opened his mouth but before he could speak a combat droid stepped up to us from the edge of the loading platform.

"Security pass." it said in a tinny artificial voice. I raised an eyebrow but pulled the pass out and held it out without comment. The droid lifted a metal hand to hover over the pass for a long moment before stepping back.

"Security grade A confirmed, continue about your business." it said then turned marching stiffly away.

"Alright lets go see about those speeders." Carth said with a nod toward the line of vehicles.

The security for the speeders was automated, all one had to do was wave a security pass over the console of the speeder. It then unlocked and powered up, waiting for use. We took one of the transport vehicles. It was a very basic model, mostly a large air tight cargo bed, with seats bolted down both sides. The two person cockpit at the front seemed too small by comparison. No shields or weapons, it was simple, cheap and easily replaced.

We climbed up into the cockpit, dropping our packs behind us in the cargo area. Carth claimed the pilots chair without a word. I didn't object, he was undoubtedly a better pilot than I was.

Carth glanced over the controls briefly, familiarizing himself with the layout. "Any idea where we're going?" he asked taking hold of the controls, and smoothly guided the large transport speeder out of the staging area. I checked my wrist comp as the city slid by below.

"No hit on her com signal yet, head toward the sky hole for now. If we don't get a hit by the time we get there we can start a grid search." I said relaxing back in my seat to wait. Carth nodded and pushed the throttle to max. We leapt forward with surprising speed. I felt myself being thrust back into the seat as we shot through the twilight.

* * *

Darth Malak stood on the bridge of Saul Karath's flagship, the Leviathan. As he gazed out over the City world of Taris from orbit, his fury burned. He had come so close to capturing that cursed Padawan. How had she managed to master Battle Meditation so young. He had no personal talent for Battle Meditation himself. What's more, the Sith and dark Jedi under his control who had the talent were too weak to counter the Padawan's ability. How had she escaped the ship? Dozens of his best shock troops and half a dozen of his best Sith Assassins had boarded that ship, yet she still managed to escape. The dark side of the Force swirled around him like a tempest, spurred on by his rage. Not only had the child escaped but now his forces on the planet couldn't find her.

He fed his frustration and rage with the constant pain he experienced, ever since Revan had taken his lower jaw. Using that pain he drew the dark side into himself, feeling the power fill him to bursting. The air around him darkened and the decking under his feet groaned. Around him officers and bridge crew gawked as pure dark side power roiled about him like bands of black mist. Saul Karath stood impassive a few feet to the Dark Lords left. The admiral glanced at Malak yet made no outward sign of discomfort. The only person on the bridge with enough self control not to cower. Malak could sense unease from him, but none of it showed on his face, or in his stance. Saul's refusal to cower made Malak's rage grow even further.

Malak spun and struck out with the force. A red armored, heavy trooper guarding the entrance to the bridge, caught the brunt of his anger. The man floated into the air with a scream of startled pain. Malak raised a hand driving the Force through the man's body, his internal organs liquefied instantly, abruptly cutting off the trooper's screams. Malak closed his fist, bending the torrent of power to his will, metal screamed as the man's armor collapsed in on itself, blood fountained through gaps in the armor as the corpse was crushed into a nearly perfect sphere less than half a meter in diameter. After a moment Malak let the ball drop to the spreading puddle of blood on the deck.

Everyone on the bridge gaped in shocked horror at the blood stained ball. The Dark Lord could sense their terror flooding the force, he basked in that terror for a moment before turning to his admiral. Saul was pale, and the mask of indifference was long gone, fear shown clearly on his face.

"Admiral Karath my patience is wearing thin." Malak's synthesized voice was deep and resonant filling the bridge as he spoke. "Find the Jedi." With that he turned and strode from the bridge.

* * *

Bastila sat cross legged on the cot deep in meditation, attempting to flush the drug from her system with a healing trance. The drug had worn off enough for her to sense the Force again, but it was distant and faint. No matter how she strained for it, the Force slipped through her grasp, just out of reach, taunting her.

A sound in the distance made her eyes snap open. Fear bubbled up inside her, as feint footsteps approached her cell. Her heart beat faster, images of the shock stick floated in her mind's eye. Slowly, trying to calm her breathing, she got to her feet. No matter what happened she would not cower, she would not beg. Despite her determination sweat beaded on her brow as the footsteps stopped in front of her cell. She heard a soft 'click' then the door swung open.

Brejik stood outlined by the brighter light of the hall outside. He held a cup in one hand and the shock stick in the other. Bastila steeled herself as he stepped inside. She was considering trying to take the shock stick from him and beating him unconscious with it, when two large men stepped into view beyond the door. She felt her shoulders slump despite herself.

Brejik smiled "From what I understand Jedi are trained quite well in hand to hand combat, but I doubt you could take three men without the Force." he said taking another step forward and holding out the cup. "Speaking of which time for your medicine."

Bastila glared at him, making no a move to take the proffered drink. His smile broadened, the hand holding the shock stick tightened.

"Either drink this yourself or I'll pour it down your throat." He said lifting the shock stick.

Feeling shame and anger burn inside her, Bastila reached out and snatched the cup. She downed the contents in a few quick gulps, before thrusting it back at him. He took it, looking almost disappointed. There was a sickness in Brejik, he enjoyed cruelty and causing pain. The best thing she could do was bide her time and wait for an opportunity. She knew that, but it burned her up inside to except her situation. A Jedi was supposed to be able to face nearly any situation with calm, yet all she could feel was frustration and shame at being caught. Anger at her inability to do anything about it. Terror that Brejik would decide to feed his sick desires in other ways. She didn't know if she could survive...that.

Brejik's comlink beeped and he glanced down before sneering at her. "Duty calls, till next time, little Jedi." he said in that freakishly high voice.

She sat heavily on the cot watching Brejik stomp from the cell, feeling her mind cloud from the drug. _Revan_ _hurry up, I need you_ _._ It was her last thought before swirling blackness claimed her.

* * *

My wrist comp beeped drawing my attention as we neared the center of the sky hole. Carth glanced over as I studied the screen.

"Got her, three o'clock, two kilometers." I said pointing. Carth smoothly altered course. _How had she just appeared so close? I should have detected her signal at more than twice that range._ Carth slowed dropping altitude as we approached the source of her signal. Then I spotted her, she was running flat out back towards the City. She must have heard us coming because she spun looking directly up at us. She waved her arms frantically. _What could have her so spooked that she would wave down a Sith transport?_ Then I saw them, hunched pale figures with bulbous heads charging after her on all fours. At that distance they seemed to fade in and out of sight, blending in with the ground around them.

"Carth get down there now!" I barked leaning forward in my seat, readying myself to leap from the transport. Six of the things loped towards her with surprising speed. She drew two blasters from hip holsters and let lose a flurry of bolts at the lead creature. A few of the shots hit and the beast stumbled but quickly righted itself and carried on.

Carth sped over the creatures and brought us down between them and Mission. I leapt down from the speeder the moment it came to a stop, hitting the ground at a run. "Get Mission!" I shouted back over my shoulder, sliding to a stop in the hard packed grey dirt. I drew the Vibrosword at my back and watched the creatures charge toward me.

They were horrific, sagging, pale grey and blotchy yellow skin. Huge mouths filled with sharp teeth dripped saliva. Large bright yellow eyes gleamed in the low light. Long thin fingers tipped with inch long talons ripped up the ground as the loped awkwardly forward. Their hind legs were much longer than their forelegs, almost as if they were meant to move on two legs. The snarled and screeched as they charged.

"Don't let them bite you!" Mission shouted from somewhere behind me. "If they bite you, you'll die, or worse!"

I didn't respond, all my focus was on the creatures before me. I lifted my blade in a basic two handed grip and balanced on the balls of my feet. The lead creature suddenly sprang for me, leaping into the air with incredible force. I dropped to one knee and whipped my blade forward on instinct, catching it in the middle of it's bulbous head. The energy enhanced blade cut cleanly through skin, muscle and bone. The force of the creatures leap carried it through the air over my head, landing in two neatly sliced halves on the ground behind me, with a wet thud. Rising quickly, I dodged left, slashing out at a second monster as it closed the distance. It snarled and leapt back missing most of its right foreleg, spraying oily blue blood from the stump. A third charged as blaster bolts shot from behind me and to my left taking the wounded one in the chest and head. It dropped howling in pain and rage. A small portion of my brain registered the assistance, while I stepped into the third beasts charge. I thrust my blade forward and up, catching the thing in it's stomach and cutting deep. Blood poured from the wound splashing on my boots as it staggered back, howling. It stumbled and fell while a fourth was dropped by blaster fire. I charged the last two as they paused seeming unsure of who to attack. My charge made up their minds, they turned to me as I neared, snarling. I dove between them rolling under slashing claws, coming up in a spinning back hand slash. I felt two slight tugs against the Vibrosword as it cut cleanly through them both. Their heads tumbled from their shoulders, oily blue blood gushing from their necks as they fell forward.

I whipped the my sword down and to the side to sling most of the blood off the blade, then wiped the rest in the crook of my elbow before sliding it into the scabbard on my back. Carth and Mission stood a few feet in front of the speeder. Carth gazed at the dead monsters with a look of concern. Mission looked at me with bug eyed shock.

"Rakghouls?" I asked walking over to them. Mission blinked a few times then nodded slowly.

"They usually stay farther away from the town, those ones followed me out of the sewers." she said absently, still looking mildly surprised. She looked me up and down as if seeing me for the first time. "Where did you learn to fight like that, and why are you here? In a Sith transport no less." she burst out in consternation.

"There's gratitude for you," Carth said with a frown. "You could say thank you, we just saved your life." Mission snorted.

"I would have been fine," she said false bravado thick in her voice.

"You would have been dinner for those things." Carth shot back, glaring down at her.

She opened her mouth to reply, with something cutting no doubt, but she caught herself. Her lekku twitch in Ryl, " _I don't have time for this."_ She took a deep breath and replied calmly. "Look, none of this matters, they took Zaalbar, I need to go find help to save him." She wrung her hands and glanced anxiously over her shoulder towards the settlement. I could almost feel anxiety pouring off of her in waves.

"Who took him?" I asked in a calm tone, I developed for dealing with panicked soldiers. On a battlefield, panic killed just as quickly as blasters or bombs. It worked just as well on Mission. She stopped wringing her hands and met my eyes.

"Gamorrean slavers. We were in the sewers looking for something." she said standing straighter as she explained. "We were doing fine, when seven or eight of the swine ambushed us. Zaalbar charged them and told me to run. I would have stayed to help but those damn Rakghouls showed up. I had to run." She tried to sound defiant but her cheeks darkened in a blush and her lekku twitched with agitation.

"If we help you get him back will you get us into the Vulkar base?" I asked. She opened her mouth to object, I simply raised an eyebrow, staring into her vibrant violet eyes. Her mouth snapped shut and her blush deepened turning her cheeks a deep purple.

"Yes, if you help me get Zaalbar back, I'll get you in." she said giving me a calculating look. "Is that why you came down here?"

"Gadon said you could get us in, so we came to find you." Carth replied. "What were you looking for in the sewers?" he asked.

"A friend lost something in there, he asked us to find it for him." she said defensively, glaring at him.

"What did he lose that was so important it was worth risking your life for?" Carth asked narrowing his eyes.

Mission glared at him in defiant petulance. He just gave her a look that could only be described as, fatherly disappointment. After a long moment Mission looked away, her lekku twitched once more in her native language. Something like, " _Don't look at me like that! Not your kid,_ n _osy,_ _n_ _erf brained, twit!"_

I laughed, Carth looked at me in confusion, while Mission gaped at me, the blush flooding back in full force.

"You know Ryl?" she gasped in disbelief. I just grinned and winked at her. "That's not fair!"

"What's Ryl?" Carth asked, while we left Mission standing there spluttering in indignation.

"Her native language, Twi'leks can communicate with their head tails alone if they want too." I replied, stepping up into the speeder.

He nodded, looking back over his shoulder at a glowering Mission, stalking toward the speeder.

"What did she say?" he asked glancing back.

"Called you nosy." he just snorted, and moved around to the pilot's door. Mission clambered into the speeder and sat behind us in the cargo area, mumbling to herself.

"Where is the nearest entrance to the sewers?" I asked, interrupting her mumbling.

"A few hundred meters back the way I came." she replied, "How did you guys get this speeder?" she asked while Carth got us into the air and wheeled us around.

"Gadon gave us a security pass, it gives us access to the speeder network." I said glancing over my shoulder to look at her. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"He must trust you."

"I don't know about that," Carth replied, "We gave him two sets of Sith armor in return for the pass. It was a strait trade."

"How did you get Sith armor?" she asked sounding more surprised.

"Long story." I said glancing at Carth, who grimaced.

"Bet it's a good one." she said sounding interested. I was saved from answering by Mission pointing to a large pile of rubble off to the right. "There, that's the entrance."

Carth nodded bringing us down to land a few meters from the rubble. I climbed into the back and started digging through the packs. Carth powered down the speeder and joined me a moment later. Mission poked her head over my shoulder looking down into the bag.

"Wow, you guys came prepared." she said reaching past me to pull out a few spare power cells, sliding them into the pockets on her vest. I took as many power cells as I could, fitting them into different compartments and pouches in my armor. Carth did likewise and pulled a grenade belt full of concussion grenades from his pack, slipping it over one shoulder. I clipped a short vibroblade to my blaster belt. Carth pulled the A.M.R. from his bag and raised a questioning brow. I looked at the rifle for a moment, it was larger than a normal blaster rifle and a bit heavier but not by much. It wouldn't slow us down and it was by far the most powerful weapon we had. I nodded and reached for it, he handed it over along with a harness for the weapon. I pulled the harness on over the vibrosword on my back and secured it across my chest. The harness clipped into a slot just behind the pistol grip. Allowing the weapon to hang free with enough slack to be brought up to the shoulder for use. Carth moved everything else from my pack to his then slung it onto his back.

We left the Speeder and engaged it's security system. Mission led the way over to the giant pile of metal and stone. She walked with a confident stride, but as we neared she drew one of her blasters. Carth and I already had our blasters in hand, carefully scanning the bleak grey and brown landscape.

She led us to an access shaft mostly hidden behind a large slab of permacrete. A man sized hatch was barred by a basic lever mechanism. She reached out and grabbed the lever pulling it down. Surprisingly the mechanism was well oiled. It moved easily, sliding down with a soft rasp of metal on metal, retracting the bars. Mission pulled the door open slowly with one hand, a blaster in the other.

The shaft was dark and led strait down. I thumbed a button on my blasters activating the small lights under their barrels. Stepping forward I looked down the shaft, the light illuminated a ladder leading down to a platform about twenty feet below.

"It's clear," I said stepping back. "I'll take point, don't follow until I sound the all clear." That last I said pointedly looking at Mission. She narrowed her eyes but nodded.

I holstered my blasters and climbed into the shaft. I slid quickly down the ladder, thudding softly onto metal grating. I quickly drew my blasters and scanned the area. I stood in a dark, circular permacrete tunnel about four meters in diameter. A dead half eaten Gamorrean lay a few meters down the tunnel. Nothing moved, it was quiet other than the distant sound of running water. I waited another moment just to be sure, scanning the tunnel carefully.

"Clear." I called back up the shaft. I went over to examine the corpse while the other two made their way down. The alien had died very recently, it hadn't started to stink, anymore than a Gamorrean normally stank anyway. Tooth and claw marks covered every inch of the corpse. It had been ripped apart so badly that if half of it's face hadn't been intact. I wouldn't have been able to tell what species it had been. I stood turning just in time to see Mission step down off the ladder. She came over to me, drawing a blaster.

"Was this here when you when you escaped?" I asked motioning to the corpse. She shook her head studying the corpse.

"The Rakghouls must have gotten him right after I left." she said.

Carth thumped down onto the grate and moved over to us. "Well that's not a good sign." he said after a moment.

"Probably not." I replied dryly.

"Well, no point in waiting here for them to come back," he said drawing his own weapons. "Let's move."

I activated my wrist comp's mapping and scanning functions, working in conjunction the functions would make a three dimensional map of everything within twenty meters. Satisfied I led the way down the tunnel moving cautiously, making as little noise as possible. Mission followed close behind with Carth bringing up the rear.

A couple hundred meters down the tunnel we came to a dimly lit round room, with two other tunnels branching off in different directions. Water flowed into the room beneath the grating, from the tunnel at the opposite end of the room. Old glow bulbs flickered dimly in the ceiling.

Half a dozen Rakghoul corpses littered the floor in the middle of the room. Approaching the scene carefully, I knelt to examine one of the bodies. The creature was covered in blaster holes about the size of my index finger. The thing had been shredded, most likely a heavy repeater judging by the size and number of the holes.

"I doubt the Gamorreans did this," I said standing. "They prefer melee weapons, plus heavy repeaters are expensive and complicated."

"True, I have never heard of Gamorrean smart enough to perform basic maintenance on one." Carth added.

"A Sith patrol, or some of Davik's thugs." Mission said stepping up to look over the corpse. "They started searching the sewers soon after the escape pods crashed down."

"Davik?" I asked.

"Local Exchange boss." she replied standing and pointing down the far tunnel. "That one will lead us to where we were ambushed. I should be able to follow the slavers trail from there."

I took the lead again as we made our way from the room. The tunnel was virtually identical to the first. Bland grey walls seemed to lead on into the darkness, forever. We cautiously made our way deeper, through identical rooms and branching tunnels. We walked in silence for almost an hour before we came to some kind of huge central hub.

Lights blinked on overhead as we entered. The room was a hundred meters across, and perfectly circular. Dozens of access corridors and drainage tunnels lined the walls. The same corrugated grating in the tunnels spread across the room. Below it I could see water flowing out of the tunnel behind us, falling into a massive pool far below. Streams of water cascaded from a number of the other access ways lining the walls. Surprisingly the room didn't smell like a sewer. The water smelled fairly clean. In fact the worst smells I had noticed up until that point were the corpses we past.

"I thought this was a sewer. It doesn't smell like one." I said, raising my voice over the sound of the rushing water.

"This is fresh water, drawn from a massive underground lake. Ten kilometers to the south is another chamber like this one, three times larger, for the districts waste." Mission replied. She turned and pointed to an opening in the far wall. "That way."

I nodded and headed for the passage. As we neared the opening faint shouts carried to us from a passage to the left. Carth and I spun almost in unison aiming in the direction the sounds came from. We waited as the shouts came closer. Lights appeared down one of the dark tunnels. Flashes of red and green accompanied the high pitched whine of blaster shots.

I motioned to a nearby tunnel entrance and we ducked inside dousing our lights. The shouts were close enough to make out now.

"Come on, move your asses. Do you want to be food for those things?" the command was punctuated by a rapid fire burst from a heavy repeater. Six men burst from a tunnel about twenty meters away. Spilling into the room and spreading out waving blaster rifles around frantically. The men were well armed and armored, they would have looked like professional mercenaries if it weren't for the wild frantic looks in their eyes, and spots of blue and red blood smearing their armor.

I stepped farther back into the darkness of the tunnel. Men that frightened would shoot at anything that moved. A taller man with greying hair and a scar across his left eye charged out after his men. He was in better armor than they were and he held a large heavy repeating blaster. As soon as he cleared the tunnel mouth he spun and dropped to one knee. With a grimace he pored fire back down the tunnel. Disjointed screeching and howls of pain echoed back out.

"Which way now sir?" a young merc asked when the man paused in his assault to change his power cell.

"Doesn't matter, we either kill them all here or we're dead," he responded in a surprisingly calm voice. "Well what are you waiting for? Shoot the bastards, don't just stand there boy!" The man said with a firm snap of command in his tone. His men reacted instantly, taking aim and firing back down the tunnel. As soon as he got his own power cell changed he went back to spraying the tunnel mouth with the massive weapon. Howls of pain and inhuman snarling grew louder as they continued firing.

A seething mass of Rakghouls poured out of the tunnel in a flood, dozens of them. The closest went down under the onslaught but the ones behind them scrambled over their dead companions barely slowing. The mercs retreated slowly keeping up their fire, but it was hopeless. One of the men screamed in terror and broke running down a side passage barely keeping a hold on his rifle.

"Lorpin get back here!" the greying man shouted after him. The kid didn't seem to notice, he fled into the darkness, still screaming. "Damn it!" the man cursed.

He turned back just as one of the Rakghouls leapt over a group of corpses, straight for him. A bone deep calm settled over me, while time seemed to slow, like it had the day before against the Sith. The world around me jumped into sharper focus. I raised my blasters and let off three quick shots without thinking. I watched as three neat holes less than an inch apart, appeared in the creatures head, even as it soared through the air. I was dimly aware that there was no sound other than rushing wind when I moved. Without pausing I turned my attention to the roiling mass of Rakghouls, standing frozen in mid charge. Taking careful aim I opened fire. The creatures seemed almost to be standing still, it was a simple matter to hit head shots at that range. Two or three shots each. I moved from creature to creature watching neat holes materialized in foreheads, temples, eyes. I fired until my blasters clicked uselessly on empty power cells.

Of the more than two dozen Rakghouls that had poured from the tunnel, nearly half were dead, still frozen upright, waiting to fall. I ejected the spent power cells and stepped out of the tunnel, hearing the strange rushing noise as I reached for new ones. I idly noticed that the spent power cells were floating in the air. Glancing up I watched the first Rakghoul I had shot, lazily drifting toward the greying mercenary. My eyes widened, as a something like a trance seemed to lift from my mind. I froze with the new power cell just short of my blaster, staring at the scene. I really took in what I had just done. It seemed like minutes since I fired that first shot, yet nothing had moved, the whole world was frozen before me.

The shock snapped me out of whatever it was that slowed time. In a rush things started moving again sound crashed back in. Mercs shouting, the monsters howling in rage, blaster fire, and over a dozen of the creatures falling to the floor in unison. The leader of the group managed to raise an arm just before the corpse of the Rakghoul smashed into him, knocking him off his feet. They slammed to the ground with a thud. The man grunted in surprise and pushed the thing off him staring in disbelief at the smoking holes in the side of it's head. He glanced in the direction of those bolts and saw me standing there, half way through reloading.

"Nice shot, how about some more of that huh?" he shouted over the din pushing himself to his feet. Carth opened fire on my left, while Mission stepped up to my other side and raised her own blasters. The remaining Rakghouls were down in moments leaving a smoking, pile of corpses just outside the lip of the tunnel.

As soon as the last monster dropped thrashing to the ground, the remaining mercs spun. I ignored the blaster barrels pointed at us. The corpses of the Rakghouls held my complete attention. Some part of me registered the leader of the mercs settling his men. Snapping at them until they reluctantly lowered their weapons. But it was a distant and small part of my mind. Everything else was focused on the sixteen dead monsters that I had killed in a fraction of a second. My blood turned to ice in my veins. Wetware implants might be able to give someone speed and focus like that. Not that I had any implants, but it would have been nice if I did. I could have lied to myself, possibly. Told myself that I wasn't a freak that was losing his mind. Memories, visions that weren't my own. Scars that I had no memory of getting. Other scars vanishing, seeing a vision of a woman I had never seen anywhere other than my dreams. _What is happening to me?_ What I had just done was impossible, yet it happened. My hands were shaking, I gripped my blasters tighter but it didn't seem to help much. _Am I really that monster from the dreams? He could have done this._ The thought made me want to run screaming into the darkness, after the deserter.

"Do you want to explain how you just teleported?" Carth asked softly.

His voice brought me out of my panicked thoughts. "What?" I asked honestly confused by the question.

"One second you were standing next to me, then you were standing right there. You just appeared there." He said motioning to me.

"Quiet, we have more immediate problems." Mission snapped softly. But when I glanced at her she was studying me with a knowing expression that made me very uncomfortable. Her lekku twitched a few times before quickly catching herself, _'_ _The Force, has to_ _...'._ I could feel my face pale, but she looked away, watching the Greying man closely, as he saw to his men. Her face was impassive but she didn't trust whoever this man was, her hands tightened on her blasters.

Carth watched me with the kind of suspicion normally reserved for assassins and terrorists. I did my best to ignore him, instead focusing on the group of men before us. The leader was moving through them, checking for injuries and calming them down. The three of us waited in silence, I wasn't sure at the time why we didn't just leave. The tunnel Mission indicated was right next to us. We could have left, but we all waited for the man to finish checking over his men. When he was finally satisfied, he lead what was left of them over to us.

"I appreciate the assist, but if I were you I would turn around and get out of here as quickly as possible." he said, stopping a few feet away. I managed a blank expression and faced him squarely.

"Not your first Rakghoul attack I take it?" I asked, surprised by how calm my voice was.

"I came down here with eighteen men. This is all that's left." Weariness tinged his voice as he motioned to his men.

"What are you doing down here Canderous?" Mission asked sounding extremely suspicious.

"Same thing the Sith are doing, looking for survivors from the crashed escape pods." he said sounding even more exhausted.

"What, Davik thinks he can sell them back to the Republic?" she asked, disgusted.

"Hell, I don't know what he planned to do with them. And honestly, at this point, I couldn't care less. I'm getting what's left of my men out of here and I'm never coming back." The weariness left his voice, he stood straight and determined. This was a hard man, the type of man that could watch a dozen of the men under his command ripped to shreds by monsters, and hardly flinch. The same type of man who would have died to save any of them. I had served with more than one like him.

On a whim I sent him the mapping data my wrist comp had collected. A pad beeped on his belt in response to my transmission. He gave me a speculative look then stared off into space as lights flashed across his irises. Some kind of ocular implant. After a moment his eyes focused on me again, in them I could see a new light of respect.

"Thanks, anything that gets us out of here faster is appreciated."

I nodded to him, "You're welcome." turning I headed down the tunnel Mission had pointed out before the firefight. I didn't look back and I didn't wait for Mission or Carth. Just then I wanted to be alone, I needed to think. At that moment I honestly would have preferred to be alone down there in the sewers, than face their questions and suspicion.

I could hear Mission's and Carth's footsteps behind me as I headed into the darkness.

"That's not the way out." Canderous called after us, his deep voice sounding a cross between exasperated and concerned.

"No it's not." I called back without slowing.

* * *

Bastila woke with gasp shooting upright on the cot. In the back of her mind she felt Revan surge with power. The bond shone brilliantly, as the Force flowed through him in a torrent. She sat shaking, with fear and shock. How had he done it? The council had blocked him from the Force when they imprinted his mind. He shouldn't be able to touch the Force at all. Yet it continued to flow through him like a raging river of power. She couldn't have held that much if her life depended on it. Had he remembered who he was? Only a Jedi master could handle that much of the Force at once. Or the Dark Lord of the Sith. But the power flowing through him held none of the dark side's chaos. His mind was focused on something with razor keen intensity, but she felt no anger for fear. He felt like a Jedi in that moment. The realization calmed her somewhat, though the question of how he could touch the Force at all still troubled her.

Then like a light blinking out, the Force was gone. In it's place was a feeling of terror so intense that she wanted to climb the walls of her cell. She took a deep breath and drew away from the bond, walling it off in her mind. The fear still seeped through but she no longer felt on the verge of panic from it's intensity. She stared at the wall of her cell, trembling. What in the world was happening to him?

She had never felt terror from him before. In fact now that she considered it, she had felt every emotion from him, but never fear like that. Shaking her head she gently probed the bond in the back of her mind. The fear had calmed, though a deep sense of confusion and uneasiness clung to his mind. Feeling concern she dropped her mental barrier and embraced the bond.

His normal feel of controlled focus was returning, but she could still feel fear, deep in his mind. He was barely holding himself together. What had happened? She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, letting the bond envelop her. She steeled herself against the sudden rush of emotions and thoughts that swirled through her mind. He was thinking of a battle, she caught blurry images of hunched pale creatures, charging forward with huge gaping jaws. She shivered, _is that what he's fighting?_ They certainly scared her, but she felt no fear connected to the image, just the determination.

The image dissolved and another flashed into her mind. A group of the creatures rushing at men with blasters. She concentrated harder as the scene played out in broken flashes through her mind. Men shouting, blaster fire, the monsters climbing over their dead brethren, heedless of danger in their determination to kill. Then the images changed, everything was still, nothing moved. Then Revan was moving, his hands came up into view in the next image, aiming twin blasters at a creature in the air. The next flashed up, he was aiming at a different one, then another and another, yet the first creature was still floating in the air. _Force speed._ She thought in astonishment. No wonder he had drawn on so much power. To increase his perception that much, it was incredible. She didn't know of any Jedi who could do it to that extent. There watching the images of frozen battle play out she felt that fear boil up in his mind again. It wasn't the creatures that scared him, or the threat of death, it was himself. It made perfect sense, as far as he was concerned he was a soldier. If the council was successful he couldn't remember anything of his former life. Freezing time must have thrown his sense of identity into total chaos.

She stayed in his mind a while longer gently poking and prodding his psyche, looking for evidence of his former personality, but came up empty. He was just a scared, confused soldier, trying to get a job done. She drew back into her own mind and filled herself with calm. She let it flow from her into the bond, trying to do what she could to comfort him. She should have done so immediately, but she had been to frightened to think clearly. Her calm reassurance, flowed into their bond, washing over his jagged emotions and leaving them, if not placid, then at least more at ease. His fear retreated, the familiar razor edge focus established itself. She let out a soft sigh, feeling more at ease herself.

Opening her eyes, she leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. She held his now calm presence in the back of mind drawing strength from him. Even in his moment of greatest weakness he was still moving forward. He was still hunting her, if she had gone through emotional upheaval like that it would have crushed her. She was sure of it, even dealing with his emotions had threatened to overwhelm her. How did he push forward under that kind of fear?

She found herself desperately wanting to be there with him. She could have helped him if she had been there. The intensity of the urge made her shudder. She was becoming far to emotional towards him. She couldn't seem to maintain the distance necessary to maintain proper Jedi discipline. She cared for him, she realized with a small start of surprise. How could she care for a man, that had killed so many. A man that had turned numerous Jedi to the Dark side. A man who had declared war on the Republic. A man who was even now fighting monsters and his own terror to save her.

She sat there wrestling with herself, berating herself one moment, filled with sympathy the next. The thoughts played across her mind over and over again. Finally she reached for the Force reflexively, trying to calm herself.

She felt resistance, like trying to grasp something through thick mud. She pushed harder, forcing her way deeper, desperately reaching to the power just out of reach. The resistance vanished, a trickle of the power flowed into her. She gasped as the Force filled her. It was such a tiny amount that she couldn't do anything useful with it. But just the fact that she had touched it helped clear her mind somewhat. Relief flooded her, it had been days since she had been able to touch the Force. That small victory filled her with hope. She would escape this place, maybe she could manage it before Revan found her.

She sat forward and crossed her legs under her, clinging to the Force. With some effort she managed to go into a light healing trace. Slowly directing the tiny amount of the power through her body. Focused on the work, she was oblivious to the fact that in her drugged desperation she had reached for Revan, not the Force itself. The power she clung too, came through their bond, flowing easily from him into her. She was too drugged to touch the force herself, but Revan could. She was too focused on the trance to notice how much clearer his emotions had become. The resistance she felt was the weakened block the Jedi had placed in his mind. By taking hold of the Force through him, she had broken it. A mistake that would come back to either save, or destroy them all.

* * *

I strode through the endless darkness of the sewers in silence, pointedly ignoring Mission and Carth. As soon as we were out of ear shot of the mercenaries they had started in on me. 'What did you do?' 'How did you do it?' 'Do you even work for the Republic?' I had ignored them continuing forward. I had no answers for them, I didn't know what I had done or how I had done it. But when you see someone seemingly teleport most people don't want to hear. 'I don't know.' So I stayed silent and kept moving forward.

Once it became clear I wasn't going to answer they fell silent. That didn't stop the confused suspicion from Carth or the excited curiosity from Mission. I was certain I could feel their emotions now. Like so many things, I had no idea how I knew, I just did.

So when Mission opened her mouth again I wasn't surprised, I could feel her emotions change as a new thought occurred to her.

"Are you a Jedi?" her voice was excited, her emotions felt sure like she had just solved a puzzle. I managed to keep from stumbling, barely. The question had hit too close to the dreams. If they were real then I had been a Jedi, before becoming a monster that threatened the entire Republic. The idea seemed ridiculous, but it had been bouncing around in my head for hours, refusing to be banished. I felt a sharp stab of incredulity Carth.

"That's ridiculous Mission, after what we have went through since getting down here, a Jedi would have used the force by now." Though the words almost sounded as if he were trying to convince himself.

"Oh yeah and what do you call teleporting five feet into the room back there? Looked like the Force to me." she snapped back, irritated. Carth opened his mouth then closed it again, thinking. Emotions swirled through him, confusion, irritation, anger, and fear. He didn't know what to make of me and his suspicious nature fought with the part of him that had come to trust me as a comrade, if nothing else.

I kept my mouth shut and we kept walking, neither of them really expecting me to answer. A half dozen corridors later we came to another scene of carnage. Gamorrean corpses were scattered across the ground of a room very similar to the first we came across. These corpses weren't as badly torn up as the first one we had seen. Most had huge bloody gashes where their throats had been. Though one was missing it's right arm. It looked as though the limb had been ripped clean out of it's socket.

"Big Z must have been pissed." Mission said with a grimace at the scene.

"You're sure this was him?" Carth asked sounding impressed.

"Yeah this is where we were ambushed, plus that one is missing an arm." she pointed, "The only thing I know of, that strong, is Zaalbar." she continued sounding almost proud.

"Okay, you said you could track him from here." Carth said in a questioning tone as he moved over to examine the one armed corpse. Mission picked her way through the carnage to the tunnel at the opposite side of the room. She moved slowly aiming her light at the floor. After a few moments she came back out and moved to the opening to my right. After only a couple steps she let out a pleased exclamation. She bent down to the floor and came back up holding something out toward me. A bloody clump of brown fur.

"When Big Z gets pissed, he starts shedding." she said with a satisfied grin. Carth snorted with amusement, getting to his feet.

"Lead on then, we still have a lot to do tonight." he said walking up next to her. She turned and hurried down the tunnel, still grinning. I could feel satisfaction, and relief pore off of her. I jogged after them only to fall to my knees just inside the tunnel gasping for breath.

Something shifted in my mind, I felt a tug in the back of my consciousness. The world seemed to spin as the tug strained against something unseen deep in my mind. I moaned at a sudden burst of pain behind my eyes. Dimly I heard voices, hands touched my head. But the pain was all consuming, like spikes being driven through my eyes. I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out. The unseen thing held against the tugging for a moment longer, then gave way. The pain was incredible I couldn't stop the cry of pain as something in my mind shattered. Whatever it had been vanished along with the pain.

I stayed there on my hands and knees panting for what felt like an eternity. Once the pain and shock faded I became aware of tugging once more. It felt like something was pouring from me to the source of that pull. I also felt a new set of emotions like a third person standing nearby. When I focused on them they snapped more firmly into focus. Relief and joy held the focus of the mind. I could have pointed directly at whoever it was, through kilometers of rock and Durasteel. I didn't know who the mind belonged too, but it felt familiar.

A blaster shot broke through my disorientation. I lifted my head to see a dead Rakghoul laying a few feet in front of Carth, a smoking hole in it's forehead.

"Rorick, snap out of it!" Mission was kneeling next to me. Concern permeated her voice, I could feel fear and concern poring out of her. I blinked and focused on her face. Relief replaced the concern just as her small hand came up with surprising speed, slapping me full across the face.

"Don't scare me like that!" she snapped getting to her feet and holding out a hand. Cheek stinging, I took her hand and let her help me to my feet.

"Sorry, I don't know what came over me." I said lamely.

"Don't worry about it right now. Can you walk?" she asked still holding my hand.

"Yeah, I think so." to be honest in that moment I felt pretty shaky, but I also felt energized. Like I could have either run all day, or fallen flat on my face. Both possibilities seemed equally likely.

"Good we need to move." she said gripping my hand tighter and trotting down the tunnel pulling me, half stumbling behind her.

"If we get out of this I'm going to want an explanation." Carth said taking the lead, with a smooth loping stride. _As would I Carth, as would I._ Mission still emanated concern as we moved through the dark corridor.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked just loud enough to hear over our quick footfalls. I squeezed her hand thankful for her concern.

"Yes, whatever that was, it's over." I said, gently pulling my hand from hers and giving her a small smile. My legs felt steadier with ever step. The energized feeling was still there, the quick jogging pace Carth set was easier than it should have been. I was in good physical condition but after a few minutes I wasn't even breathing faster. In fact it felt easier than walking had before I collapsed. _Well at least something useful finally came of this mess._

As we ran my thoughts wondered back to the jumble of emotions in a back of my mind. Something was still flowing from me into that presence. Yet that wasn't what frightened me, the flowing sensation felt almost natural. What unnerved me, was how familiar the presence felt. Like it had always been there. I felt I should have known who it was, the fact that I didn't felt like a loss of some kind. _When I find you Bastila you better have answers for me._

A new set of emotions drew my attention from the presence in my mind. Behind us coming up quickly, was, rage of a kind that seemed impossible. Incomprehensible hatred and rage flooded down the tunnel toward us.

Instinctively I drew my blaster and fired back down the passage without slowing. A high pitched cry of agony echoed back followed by a number of snarling howls.

"What the he..." Carth said looking back over his shoulder.

"Rakghouls, run faster!" I shouted cutting him off. He didn't argue. We raced down the passage firing back into the darkness. Most of their shots missed, but almost every one of mine brought a new cry of animal pain echoing up to us. It wasn't enough, the sense of rage just grew, until I couldn't tell individual creatures apart. The emotion swirled together, until it felt like a wave of murderous rage crashing down the tunnel behind us.

"Their gaining," I shouted of over the snarling monsters. "Carth grenade." He plucked one off his bandoleer and tossed it to me. "When I say, cover your ears and close your eyes. We will only have a few seconds to take them out." they both nodded panting with exertion. I hit the activator and waited three seconds, then threw, aiming for the center of that rage. "Now!"

I dropped curling into a ball, squeezing my eyes shut and covering my ears. A blinding flash of light exploded across my eyelids. Followed by a roar that shook the world. In a confined space like the tunnel, a simple concussion grenade felt like a turbo laser barrage.

The second the blast past over me I rolled to my feet shouldering the A.M.R. I flicked on its light and aimed down the scope. Hunched figures stumbled back and forth across my field of view. Stunned and blinded Rakghouls, snarled in confusion and pain, bumping into one another and the walls. I exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The rifle roared, a blinding streak of light shot from the muzzle. It slammed into a Rakghoul instantly vaporizing most of the blood in it's body. The creature exploded into a cloud of gore, along with the creature behind it. The highly compressed photons lost enough energy that by the time it hit a third, the creature simple burst into flames with a hole the size of a fist through it's chest.

The sudden flames lit the passage exposing dozens of the beasts milling around in confusion. I fired again, the rifle roared and five more of the monsters died. Smaller blaster bolts zipped over my shoulders into the mass of Rakghouls. I shifted my aim and fired again. The roar of the A.M.R. and the high pitched whine of blaster pistols filled the air as the monsters died.

Within moments it was over. Piles of mangled corpses lined the tunnel, blood and gore dripped from the walls and ceiling. The stench of charred meat, blood and death filled the air. My stomach churned as I stood.

"You guys alright?" I asked turning away from the carnage. Mission just gazed down the tunnel, face pale. Carth nodded, looking a little sick. I put a hand on Mission's shoulder and tilted her head up to look into my eyes.

"Hey," I said softly, giving her shoulder a squeeze. "Are you hurt?" She blinked up into my eyes and slowly shook her head.

"I think I'm okay." she said and took a deep breath, stepping back. "I have never seen a pack like this before." she said motioning back down the tunnel. "If you two hadn't been here..." she trailed off shuddering.

Carth put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We were here," he said giving her a small smile. "Now let's go rescue your Wookiee." With obvious effort she straightened and nodded turning away. Carth and I followed a little way behind her.

"Think she'll be okay?" I asked just loud enough for him to hear.

"She started shooting before I did, after that grenade went off." he replied managing a small grin. "Yeah she's tough, she'll be alright."

I nodded and picked up my pace to walk beside her. She glanced up and her lekku twitched. ' _Scary.'_ My face must have changed because she looked back down blushing.

"I didn't mean that, exactly." she said softly.

"It's okay," I replied surprised that I felt hurt. "I understand." I didn't want her to be afraid of me, I didn't want her to think of me as scary.

"No," she said looking back up into my eyes. "I really didn't mean it like that." She paused thinking, before looking back down at the ground. "I meant, the way you seem to become a different person when you fight." She said looking back up into my eyes. I felt nothing from her but sincerity, and concern.

I relaxed a little and nodded. "That I do understand." I paused thinking how to explain. "When you're trained like I was, the training takes over. It doesn't leave room for doubt or fear." I said grimacing.

"Yeah it's like you become a machine," she paused pointing her light at a soft patch of brown fur before continuing. "It's scary that any person could be trained like that, I guess." she said with a shrug.

"Yes I suppose it is, I hadn't thought of it like that before." I said shining my light on the next patch of fur.

"Carth doesn't change like you do." she said, a question in her tone.

"I was trained as a pilot," he said from behind us. I felt a flash of embarrassment from her but her expression didn't change. "I have some combat experience, but Jager is special forces. The type of training they get is way beyond anything I have gone through." I was surprised at the respect in his voice. Then he ruined it by continuing. "That type of pressure changes a man, makes him into a weapon."

I glowered back at him over my shoulder. "We aren't machines." I said, indignant. "I have more of a sense of humor than you do."

"I never said you were a machine, but you are a weapon. Whether you like it or not." His voice was calm and matter of fact. The words hit me like a slap, I couldn't quite cover my flinch as I turned away to scan the floor. I knew that about myself, I had excepted it half way through my first tour against the Mandalorians. Yet now it felt wrong, I wasn't just a weapon. Or at least I didn't want that to define me. Why was it bothering me now of all times? Maybe because of Mission, I was starting to like her. We had already been through more together and most people see in a lifetime. I didn't want her think badly of me. Yet that wasn't all of it. I knew deep down that I was more than just a weapon.

I shook my head confused and frustrated. Nothing had made sense since I woke up on Taris. My life was unraveling around me. Things I had always thought were constant and immovable were now shifting beneath my feet.

Mission gripped my gauntlet interrupting my troubled thoughts. I looked over and her lekku twitched rapidly. ' _You aren't just a weapon, and even if you were, weapons can be used to save and protect. Not just to destroy.'_ Sincerity shown off of her as she smiled. _'You know it's kind of nice to talk to someone in Ryl, I haven't had many chances to practice.'_ Her concern and the change of subject made me grin back, relaxing somewhat.

"Now that's just irritating, what are you talking about now?" Carth asked in obvious annoyance at being left out. We looked at each other and grinned wider. Carth muttered angrily under breath, but didn't say anything else.

After about another half hour the trail lead to a maintenance room of some kind. The room was better lit than anywhere else we had seen so far. A number of hatches lined the walls. At the far end of the room by one of the hatchways two Gamorreans stood guard. We doused our lights and huddled in the shadows of the tunnel.

"This has to be it." Mission said in an urgent whisper. "No reason to guard a door from one of their own." I nodded and motioned her to wait.

I lifted the A.M.R. and looked through the scope at the unwary guards. They were huge, all Gamorreans were. These two seemed to be more fit that average however. Nearly two and a half meters tall with shoulders almost as wide as Mission was tall. They didn't seem to have the signature belly fat that most members of their race sported. Huge muscled arms gripped half moon axes as tall as a man. Through the scope I saw a bandage wrapped around the closer guards forearm. The wound was indented like a chunk of his flesh was missing. As I watched a nearby hatch opened and a third Gamorrean walked into the room. It turned at just the wrong second looking directly at me.

I didn't hesitate, it's mouth opened and my rifle roared. The blast took it in the face and the unlucky guard exploded. I smoothly swept my rifle across the room, dropping to one knee. I braced the rifle on my knee and fired again. The closer of the two guards vanished into a cloud of red mist. The last Gamorrean stared in shocked stupefaction at the spot where his comrade had been. My third shot landed in his open mouth.

I waited, scanning the room. The A.M.R. was a loud weapon the noise should have alerted any others in the immediate area. Sure enough, the hatch the two had been guarding opened and three more charged out, snorting and screeching in their halting native tongue. I breathed out and fired. The closest thug exploded and the sniper beeped. I glanced down and saw 'Low power' light flashing on the side of the rifle. I had gotten a lot more than five shots out of those cells, the rifle must had been set to a low power setting.

"Reloading." I said pushing the thumb release that dropped all three power cells from the stock. Mission stepped forward and opened up with both blasters. A Rapid stream of small bolts took the closer of the remaining two in it's chest. It fell squealing to the ground as I slammed the last power cell into my rifle. I raised the rifle just in time to see the third charge, screaming a war cry, into a stream of small arms fire. It stumbled and fell with a choked gurgle, to slide across the floor in the remains of it's fellows.

"Reloading." Carth said over my right shoulder.

A third hatch opened and five more slavers charged out. I let out a slow breath and opened fire. The last one to fall under Mission's well placed shots, managed to make it about fifteen feet before falling to it's knees. It gurgled and coughed up green blood, then fell forward landing with a heavy wet 'thump'.

We waited in the sudden silence for long moments. I listened, straining to hear any movement.

"Mission is that you?" A Wookiee voice called from the hatch that the slavers had been guarding, in the warbling roar of Shyriiwook.

"Big Z, are you okay?" she called back rushing forward.

"No damn it, don't rush in." Carth snapped, following quickly on her heels. I couldn't feel any other emotions in the area so I stood and headed after them, keeping my rifle at low ready. As I neared, their voices echoed out to me.

"Mission you shouldn't have come, this was foolish." Zaalbar said in his native barking growl.

"Of course I came, what type of a friend do you think I am?" She snapped back, as I rounded the corner into a large room stacked with crates along the far wall. Three doors lined the left hand wall. Zaalbar's face was outlined by a crude hole cut half way up the middle door. Mission was bent to an open panel next to the hatch, with a couple small electronic tools in hand.

"The type of friend who would do something stupid to save me." he snarled back, looking up at my entrance to study me. The gruffness of his words were undercut by overwhelming feelings of relief and affection, that pored off of the big Wookiee in waves. Mission just snorted in response obviously unimpressed with his curtness.

Carth stood just inside the door, he gave me a questioning look and glanced toward them.

"You don't know Shyriiwook either?" I asked surprised. Republic officers were encouraged to learn a hand full of popular languages, just in case. The Wookiee trade language was one of them.

"Never had a gift for languages." He replied with a shrug.

"I'm buying you a translator as soon as we get out of here." I said, moving past him into the room. Mission pressed one of her tools into the open panel and twisted. Zaalbar's cell opened with the groan of protesting metal. As soon as it was open she jumped at the still kneeling Wookiee, wrapping her arms around his thick neck. Relief and joy filled Mission as they held each other. He was obviously more than just a friend to her. More like an older brother or father figure. She broke down in sobs that wracked her small body.

"It's okay, we're okay." Zaalbar crooned softly, holding her tighter. The emotion coming from the massive Wookiee was so tender with affection and relief, I felt like an intruder. He thought of her as family, that much was obvious.

Mission got a hold of herself and pulled back not bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"Zaalbar you remember Rorick and Carth," she said motioning to us. "They helped me save you, I wouldn't have made it without them." Her voice was a bit rough from the tears but her eyes shown with gratitude.

Zaalbar stood and nodded, he stepped from the cell and walked over to stand in front of me. I had to crane my neck to look up into his eyes. He was tall, nearly seven feet, and broad with it.

"You lead?" he asked formally.

I opened my mouth then paused, I wasn't sure if I was in charge or not. Carth out ranked my by a considerable degree. I glanced over to him, he was watching with interest.

"He wants to know if I'm in charge." I told him. Carth snorted.

"Yeah you're in charge, you have been since the moment you woke up." he sounded amused. Though his emotions were more bemusement than anything else.

"I suppose I am." I replied, turning back to the huge Wookiee. He nodded satisfied.

"You have saved me from a fate worse than death." He said solemnly. "You also saved the one under my care, from herself." I saw Mission open her mouth to object, but Zaalbar went on before she could speak. "For this I swear to you, my life. I will watch over you and your children. The debt will be paid."

My jaw dropped open in shock. I had heard of Wookiee life debts, but it never occurred to me that rescuing Zaalbar would incur one. Mission rushed over and put a hand on his thick furry arm.

"Z are you sure about this? That's a big commitment… Damn huge actually." She said sounding almost as shocked as I was.

"My honor demands it Mission." he said looking down at her. "It is done."

"Okay what's going on?" Carth asked, exasperated.

"He just swore me a life debt." I said absently. Carth whistled with surprise.

"Well you're stuck with him now, I knew a Captain who had a Wookiee still following him around even though he had sworn the debt to the man's grandfather." A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. The man thought this was funny. I glared at him, but he was unaffected.

"You're stuck with me too," Mission said voice and emotions both, daring me to argue. "Big Z is the only family I have left, where he goes, I go." To be honest I was happier at the idea of having Mission around. But we could probably use all the help we could get.

"I am honored Zaalbar," I said managing a small bow. I couldn't think of anything else to say. But it seemed to satisfy him. His emotions smoothed out into a placid calm, and he nodded.

"We shouldn't stay here," Carth said drawing us all back to the present. "No telling if there are more slavers, or Rakghouls nearby."

"One moment I need to find my equipment." Zaalbar said and went to rummage in one of the crates. He came out a moment later with a huge pack, and a Bowcaster that probably matched the A.M.R. for raw power.

The weapons were capable of launching durasteel bolts like a normal crossbow, (with enough force to punch through two or three armored men) for hunting game. For combat however they were designed to fire electromagnetically charged, balls of super heated hydrogen plasma. They required multiple standard power cells and a small reservoir of hydrogen in the stock had to be refilled every few hundred shots, but they were wicked weapons. Only Wookiees and a few other physically powerful races could even use them. Unlike a normal blaster which used compressed and focused photons, which had no mass. Bowcasters fired plasma, which did. Even a fraction of an ounce of plasma being launched at several thousand meters per second, created enough recoil to crush a human shoulder, electromagnetic propulsion or not.

Zaalbar pulled the pack over his massive shoulders and checked over the Bowcaster with nimble fingers. Apparently satisfied he moved over to stand next to Mission.

"I'm ready," he said simply.

"Do you know how to find the entrance to the Vulkar base from here?" I asked Mission. She nodded though she didn't look happy about it.

"It's not far, only a few minutes walk." Zaalbar added, motioning back out into the main room. He lead the way, but paused looking down at one of the still intact corpses littering the floor. He reached down and picked up the Gamorrean's discarded axe. He hefted the wicked half moon blade then surveyed the room.

"Not very subtle," he said heading for a hatch across the room. "Though better than they deserved." cold hatred spiked in his emotions with so much intensity it made me shudder. He hated slavers with a passion. Mission trotted up to walk beside him, his calm returned the moment he glanced down at her.

"I take it they are leading the way to the Vulkar base?" Carth asked softly.

"Yes," I replied, picking my way through the corpses. "We really have to get you that translator."

"Yeah we can do that right after we storm a fortified base full of hostile combatants." he said dryly.

"We've done pretty good so far."

"Yeah we have," he said glancing at me. "And I'm still going to want an explanation from you when we get out of here."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so we walked in silence. Mission recounted events for Zaalbar as he lead us through the tunnels. Though to hear her tell it, Carth and I were grand heroes instead of soldiers on a mission. Carth snorted more than once as the tale progressed. Gratefully she glossed over the strange things that had happened to me.

I let her voice fade into the background, instead focusing on the emotions around me. I didn't understand how it worked or why the ability had suddenly manifest. But knowing what the people around me were feeling could be extremely useful. Now that the shock had passed I tried to convince myself that it was just another skill to be used. I wasn't very successful but it didn't make me want to panic anymore either.

My thoughts drifted to the bundle of emotions nestled in the back of my mind. They were calm and focused. Whomever it was, they were concentrating hard. The feeling of something flowing out of me and into that bundle had faded into the background. The feeling was still there but I had become accustomed to it. Slowly I followed that flow back to it's source. It led to a tiny point at the back of my mind. Now that I knew where it was, the tiny point seemed to glow, pulsing with life. Whatever it was, it call to me. Gently I prodded the tiny pulsing thing with my will. Nothing happened, it continued to pulse and the small flow kept poring out of it, but nothing changed. I pushed harder, trying to follow the flow back inside. Again nothing happened, it sat silent deep in my mind, taunting me. Before I could try anything else Zaalbar stopped in front of a hatch in the passage wall.

He lifted a big hand, punching a code into a touch panel on the wall. The hatch slid open easily. Inside there was a bright purple energy field blocking the corridor, with another panel on the wall beside it.

"This is it," Mission said, leading the way up to the barrier. "It's a strait shot down this passageway, except for the Rancor."

"What?" Carth snapped. "Rancor? You didn't think that was worth mentioning before now?" he asked, voice thick with incredulity.

"Would it have stopped you if I had?" she asked, giving him a flat stare. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. "I didn't think so, besides that huge rifle should be more than enough to stop a Rancor." she continued reaching up to run her fingers around the edge of the panel. A look of concentration crossed her face, then something clicked and she smiled, pulling open the panel. She pulled a small electronic pad from a pouch on her belt along with a few tools.

"A Rancor is no match for this thing." I said, patting the A.M.R. as Mission worked. Carth nodded though he didn't look happy. "What's the problem? She's right, we wouldn't have backed out if she told us earlier, and we have been kind of busy. Things can easily slip the mind when one is running for one's life."

He snorted in grudging amusement. "Just tired of surprises I guess. We have been through a lot over the past few days, and we still have a long way to go." he said, leaning against the wall to wait.

"Yeah I suppose we have." I replied watching Mission dig in the open panel with another tool. Carth wasn't used to this kind of action. Pilots didn't often get sent behind enemy lines to extract high profile targets. As far as I was concerned, this was just another bog standard rescue mission. I had completed over a dozen similar operations in the past. This one had actually been much quicker and easier than most I had been apart of. Carth wasn't me however, he would need a break soon.

"One more thing to do." I said clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Get this prototype for Gadon, I can handle it from there." He glanced at my hand then up to my face. Weariness and frustration tinged his emotions but he nodded.

Mission let out a triumphant noise and the force field faded, shutting down. She turned to us and bowed with a flourish. "One back way into the Vulkar base, coming right up." She said grinning.

"Nice work." I said moving up to take point.

"Yeah, for all the bragging that the new security couldn't be sliced, I expected something harder." She said, falling into step beside me. Her emotions were immensely pleased.

Our little group moved down the corridor as silently as possible. Only a few dozen meters from the force field, the passage opened into a cavernous room. I stalked up to the lip of the passage and looked around the corner. The roughly rectangular room extended dozens of meters in every direction. It was surprisingly well lit, glow strips shown brightly from the ceiling fifteen meters above. At the far end of the room, the monstrous Rancor crouched over a bloody pile of flesh and bones.

I shouldered the A.M.R. and checked it's power settings. Power output was set to 25% of maximum. _Well that explains how it fired twenty times before needing a reload._ I thought, thumbing the toggle to maximum. I crouched and took aim on the massive beast, bracing the rifle on my knee. I exhaled slowly and waited for the shot I wanted. It was turned away from me bending over it's meal. I didn't have a clean shot at it's head. Older Rancors could have skin as tough as durasteel plate, I wanted to hit the eyes just to be sure. I could probably have taken it in the spine, but I didn't feel like gambling with a pissed off, twenty ton carnivore.

Mission touched my arm, I glanced over my shoulder to where she crouched behind me. ' _What are we waiting for?'_ She asked silently.

I leaned in close, to whisper right next to her cone shaped ear. "It's facing away from me, I need a clear shot at it's eyes."

' _Got it.'_ she replied silently as I pulled back. She glanced back and motioned for Zaalbar. He moved forward in a crouch, almost completely silent. She stretched up and whispered to him for a moment. He nodded and pulled his huge pack off his shoulders. He set it on the ground in front of her. She unzipped it and looked inside. She stuck her arm in up her shoulder and dug around. Her face was pinched with concentration. The sound of a big bone cracking came from the Rancor. I turned back looking through the scope.

It was licking it's meter long fingers, nothing but a blood stain remained of it's meal. I felt satisfaction from behind, and turned back. Mission grinned, pulling out a wrapped package the size of her head. She set the thing down and pulled back the white wrapping cloth, revealing a chunk of roasted meat. She met my eyes, with a questioning expression. I grinned back, as an idea blossomed in my mind.

"Do we have any rope?" I asked softly. She looked puzzled but dipped her arm back into the pack coming back out a moment later with a thin length of paracord. My grin widened as my idea cemented itself. I pulled a small throwing dagger from my boot and cut a fist sized hole in the big chunk of meat. Carth's emotions flashed with devious approval, catching on to my plan. He pulled a concussion grenade off his bandoleer and handed it to me.

I took it and set it to remote activation using my wrist comp. I stuffed the grenade into the meat and took the paracord from Mission, she looked dubious but didn't say anything. I tied the thin length of rope around the grenade and held out the meat to Zaalbar.

The Wookiee nodded thoughtfully, accepting it. He moved silently to the edge of the passage and waited looking at me.

"Right at his feet." I whispered. Zaalbar nodded and stretched his huge arm back. Whipping it forward he launched the ten pound bundle more than fifty meters to land within a meter of the Rancor's left foot. The beast snarled at the sudden noise and took a quick step back, looking down at the hunk of meat. It leaned in sniffing the air, paused a moment as if wondering when meat started falling from the sky, then snapped it up off the ground and swallowed without chewing.

I waited for a five count and activated the grenade. The Rancor's stomach expanded violently and a torrent of blood fountained out of the creatures huge mouth. It staggered forward a step then fell, landing with enough force to shake the ground beneath our feet, fifty meters away. It lay still, sightless eyes already starting to film with death.

"Well that was anticlimactic." Mission said, stepping up beside me and gazing at the dead Rancor.

"When dealing with Rancors, anticlimactic is best." Zaalbar growled, settling the big pack back over his shoulders, and hefting the half mood axe.

"Why did you have the meat?" Carth asked, as we made our way across the room, to a blast door set in the back wall.

"Zaalbar's dinner." Mission said, sounding amused.

"All of it?" Carth asked sounding dubious.

"Yup." she replied with a grin.

"Oh."

Zaalbar grumbled something about, 'making sacrifices'. Mission laughed and patted his back.

"There will always be more food." she said grinning.

We gave the corpse a wide berth, with something that big and dangerous, caution was prudent. A few feet from the door Mission pulled the little electronic pad from the pouch at her waist. She stepped up to the blast door quickly tapping icons on it's screen. A light over the door flashed green, and the door slid open, revealing a freight lift.

"The Vulkars use this for smuggling, It goes all the way up to the Lowercity." Mission said stepping inside.

"How do they get past the Rakghouls, and the Rancor for that matter?" Carth asked, as we filed in behind her.

"Combat droids," she replied, hitting another icon on her pad. The doors slid closed and the lift lurched upward. "They don't come down here themselves, it's to dangerous. But Rakghouls ignore droids for the most part."

"What do they smuggle?" I asked, checking over my weapons out of habit.

"Spice, illegal weapons, slaves. Anything that makes a profit." She said, calmly exchanging the power cells in her blasters for new ones. Her voice was belied by a simmering anger that seeped out of her. I switched the A.M.R back to 25% power output and waited.

My ears popped twice from the change in altitude, over the course of our ascent. Finally the lift slowed, I crouched to the side of the doors and drew my blasters. The others followed my example, moving to either side of the doors, readying weapons.

The lift slid to a smooth halt and the doors opened with a soft hiss. A dark storage room greeted us, stacked with crates and modular storage racks. Rifles, pistols, combat harnesses, and full sets of light armor, lined the racks along the walls. Enough to equip two companies. Far more than a simple street gang needed.

Carth and I looked at each other in surprise.

"What are they going to do with all this?" He asked softly.

"Gearing up for a major offensive." I replied feeling a deep sense of unease. The room looked like the armory of a military base.

"Spread out, search for anything useful." I said softly, heading for a stack of crates. Mission went over to one of the racks and started searching through the light armor. Carth and Zaalbar joined me to search the crates.

After a minute Mission pulled down a set of light armor and a combat harness. She headed off with them behind a stack of boxes to change.

"Found something." Carth said softly, looking into a crate that had been set in front of the racks of armor.

I joined him, and looked in. Rows of neatly packed thermal detonators lined the interior. Ten rows of ten, one hundred per layer, probably five layers deep. Enough explosives to utterly decimate everything in half a kilometer.

"Wow." I said shaking my head.

"Yeah," Carth replied looking dumbfounded. "Where did they get the money for this?"

"Money for what?" Mission asked, buckling on the harness over the new matte black combat armor. She had found throwing knives somewhere, two dozen of the slim blades covered her gauntlets

"About five hundred thermal detonators." Carth answered, pulling one out for her to see it. Mission froze, half bent over the strap of a thigh holster, looking at the shinny silver sphere. Her eyes widened, forgetting the holster she grabbed her clothes off a crate and hurried over.

"Wow." she said reverently looking into the box.

"That's what he said." Carth replied.

"We're taking these right?" Mission asked looking up at me.

"Well I intended to take most of them," I felt a cruel smile tug at the corners of my mouth.. "Though, I thought we might leave them a few."

"Shouldn't take more than five or six to cause some real chaos." Carth said, nodding thoughtfully.

"Mission grab a couple of those grenade belts," I said, pointing to one of the racks lined with harnesses. "We'll split the rest between the two packs."

Zaalbar moved over to us as Mission rushed off. He dropped his pack to the ground and knelt, transferring the grenades with careful motions. Carth followed suit as Mission came back holding out two simple cloth harnesses with places for ten grenades each. She finished buckling on her gear while we loaded the detonators. Finished I stood, slipping one of the belts over the opposite shoulder from my vibrosword. I looked down at the other, it was made for a human, there was no way Zaalbar could get the thing around his waist or even over his shoulder. I turned to Mission examining her. In the armor she looked more than capable, standing at ease, but carefully watching the opposite door from the lift.

I held the belt out to her. "Do you know how to adjust their yield?" I asked.

She took the belt and slipped it over her shoulder. "Tab on the side, slide it up toward the trigger mechanism to increase the yield, the other way to decrease." From her tone, she could have been talking about the weather.

"Used one before?" I asked, surprised.

"Once or twice." she said blank faced. Zaalbar looked up at her, amusement tinged his emotions, and her cheeks darkened slightly. Embarrassment drifted out from her. "Okay, I may, or may not have stolen a shipment of them for the Beks."

"Gadon nearly flayed you alive when you dropped that box next to his desk." Zaalbar said with soft warbling chuckle.

"I thought they were concussion grenades, they look the same! How was I supposed to know the difference." She shot back indignantly.

Zaalbar turned to me with a grin, sharp fangs glinting in the dim light. "Gadon sat her down and explained them to her after that, she knows how to use them." He said putting the last grenade in his bag. Mission stomped over to drop her street clothes in his bag, lekku twitching. _'Giant lumbering fur bag, ungrateful, disloyal, shaggy oaf!'_ I allowed myself a smile, at the same time Carth threw up his hands in disgust.

"I really need that translator." he muttered angrily, "I'm getting sick of not knowing what's going on."

"I know how to use the damn things," Mission hissed, glaring at Carth. "That's all that matters, can we get moving?"

Carth gave her a mocking smile and pulled his pack on. Zaalbar lifted his own easily and slung it on his back. I pulled a grenade from the bandoleer across my chest, set it to fifty percent power and slaved it to my wrist comp for remote detonation. Finished, I set it down and rolled it behind one of the racks, the little silver sphere would vaporize most of the rooms contents when it went off.

"Mission, any idea where they would keep the prototype Gadon wants?" I asked, pulling up the digital scan of the bases blueprints. She stepped closer and looked down at the small screen. She scrolled through scan with a fingertip.

"There, the swoop garage. According to this, it's blocked by automated turrets and a blast door. We'll have to shut down the security first." She explained, scrolling back through the plans. She paused and pointed to another spot. "There, that looks like the security center." I marked the places she indicated and addressed my little team.

"Stay together and move quietly, the farther we get before someone raises the alarm the better off we'll be." I said resting my hands on the butt of the A.M.R hanging from the harness at my chest. "Ready?" I asked looking at each of them. They nodded almost in unison. "Let's move." I turned heading for the door.

Mission bypassed it with her computing pad and the door slid open. I scanned the hall outside watching for movement. Uniform dark grey walls and floor, were brightly lit by powerful glow strips in the ceiling. Nothing moved, no sound reached us. Carefully I crept out of the armory and down the hall towards the interior turbolift.

The level seemed to be deserted, we passed empty room after empty room. I payed close attention to the emotions around me, trying to feel for people. I caught some random flashes of emotion from above, but nothing directly around us. I picked up the pace moving quickly through the halls. We made it to the lift without seeing another person. Mission overrode it's operating system easily. The doors opened smoothly and we followed her inside. She tapped icons on her pad. The doors slid shut and the lift rose, accelerating smoothly.

Emotions came more clearly around me as we ascended. I closed my eyes, focusing trying to gauge distance by what I could feel. The lift slowed and my eyes snapped open. I drew the sword at my back and thrust it forward, the moment the doors started moving. The blade slid through the thin gap and sank into flesh. I felt surprise and pain flash through the person outside the lift, before fading quickly. The lift doors continued open, exposing a male Zabrak with my blade sunk deep in his throat. Mission gasped next to me, glancing between me and the man with shocked eyes. I pulled my sword free and the man's legs buckled. Blood gushed from the wound as he collapsed. Shock sprang up from down the hall to our left. I snatched a throwing knife from Missions gauntlet, stepped over the corpse into the hall, and threw the knife in one smooth motion.

A young woman with short, bright red hair stood at the end of the hall, looking to the corpse at my feet. She barely had time to raise emerald green eyes up to mine. The throwing blade buried itself to the hilt in one of those pretty green eyes. Her emotions cut off abruptly and she feel in a heap. Regret stabbed through me. Setting the back of my blade against my elbow and curling my arm, I pulled the sword free, cleaning the blood off the blade. _Bastila you had better be worth all the killing I've had to do._ I thought.

The bundle of emotions in the back of my mind flashed with shock. ' _How can you…'_ soft words in an oddly familiar feminine voice, drifted across my mind. I stiffened in shock, focusing everything on that bundle of emotion. _'Bastila?'_ I thought trying to push the word at the bundle.

Fear spiked in the presence _'No that's impossible, you've been blocked.'_

' _Blocked from what?'_ I asked pushing the thoughts to her. The presence seemed to stretch in my mind, reaching for the tiny glowing thing in the center of my mind. It pulsed with life and energy as the presence followed the flowing sensation back to it. When the presence touched the small glowing thing, it blazed to life in my mind, like a tiny star. Shock flashed through the presence and it recoiled, ' _What have I done...'_ The words floated through my mind, as the presence drew in on itself so tightly I could barely feel anything from it. The flowing sensation was gone. I prodded the presence gently but it was almost as if a wall had sprung up around it. Only the faintest of emotions drifted through it.

A hand gripped my shoulder and spun me around, abruptly snapping me back to the present. I barely stopped myself from drawing my blaster as I met Carth's furious eyes.

"How did you know?" he asked in a furious whisper. I just gaped at him, overwhelmed and frustrated.

"Carth we don't have time for this." Mission said stepping up beside him.

"Like hell we don't, that is one magical occurrence too many." Carth hissed back. "He is going to..."

"I felt their emotions." I blurted out, cutting him off.

"You what?" Carth demanded.

"It started happening right after I collapsed back in the sewers." I said softly.

"That's impossible, only Jedi can..." Carth trailed off furious.

"Force sensitive." Zaalbar said from behind them. Mission nodded looking thoughtful. She translated for Carth before his head could explode.

"It makes sense," she said studying me. "The force can do strange things before a person is taught to use it."

"How would you know?" Carth asked, anger and suspicion practically poring out of him.

"I knew a force sensitive when I was younger, weird things happened around her when she was upset." She explained patiently.

"That..." Carth started to object, but Mission cut him off.

"The point is, Rorick just stopped them from raising the alarm." she said crossing her arms over her chest. "You can either get over it or head back down into the sewers alone. Z and I are going to see this through."

Carth glared at me for a long moment. "Fine," he said grudgingly. "Lead the way."

I looked down at my wrist comp to get my bearings. The security station was close, I moved past Carth and headed down the hall away from the corpses, sword in hand. I let myself reach out looking for emotion as I walked. I felt a clump of people a few dozen meters away in the opposite direction, but only two in the direction of the security station, one of them was bored, the other was concentrating hard. Probably the guards on duty. I picked up the pace to a loping jog. I followed the two knots of emotion right to the Security room.

I held up a hand and came to a stop a few feet from the door. "Two inside," I said just above a whisper. "There, and there." I pointed at the knots of emotion through the wall.

"Damn that's handy." Mission whispered with a grin. She handed me two throwing knives before stepping up to the door. I sheathed my sword and got into position on the other side of the door.

"Do it." I whispered. Surprise and fear spiked behind the door. "Quick, they know we're here." I hissed at her. The door clicked and slid open. My hands shot forward releasing both knives before I had even registered the room. A human man sitting in front of a monitor, barely glanced up before the knife sunk into his neck. He let out a gurgling cry, clutching at the wound as he fell from the chair. A Twi'lek man stood watching the door with a vibroblade in hand, he dodged to the side, the moment the doors opened. The blade flashed past his face and bounced off the wall, clattering to the ground. He raised the blade and charged, with a look of grim determination. His emotions were resigned, not angry or afraid.

Zaalbar stepped forward and shot out a hairy fist as the Twi'lek passed. The blow connected with the side of the man's head, knocking him clean off his feet. He went sprawling across the floor, dazed. Mission entered the room and bent to collected the blade off the floor, before kneeling over the still thrashing man. She gripped the knife and pulled it free of his neck. She wiped the blood on the man's pants then sat at one of the terminals.

"That was cold." Carth whispered watching her with surprise.

"Please, I've lived in the lowercity most of my life," She snorted without looking back. Even as the man shuddered and lay still, panicked emotion vanishing from my perception. "I did worse than that before I turned twelve."

Perfectly sound logic, though it was a bit startling to hear from such a pretty young woman. Especially when she was normally so warm. Now she was all cold determination, slicing into the central computer system with single minded focus.

Zaalbar dragged the dazed Twi'lek into the room and dumped him next to the now dead human. The man shook his head and his eyes focused on the dead man. He jerked back and scrambled away, on his hands and knees. Carth drew a blaster, leveling it at the man.

"Don't," I said raising a hand.

"He doesn't smell like the others," Zaalbar said, watching the man closely. "If he doesn't want to be here why stay?" The Twi'lek looked up at the huge dark brown Wookiee in surprise.

"Because they'll kill me if I try to leave." he said resigned.

Carth holstered his weapon. "Not after today they won't." he said.

"Are there any others who want to leave?" I asked, pulling a chair from one of the terminals to sit in front of him.

"Sure, Brejik is a monster and everyone knows it." he sighed. "He's turned us into drug traffickers and slavers. I'd say a good third of us would gladly see him dead."

I couldn't feel any deviousness or falsehood in him. His emotions were sincere, he believed what he said.

"Good gather anyone who feels the way you do and get out," I said looking deep into his leaving no doubt about my next words. "We are going to cripple the Vulkars tonight, by tomorrow they will have bigger things to worry about than you."

"You serious?" he asked, looking at me like I had grown a second head.

"Do you want to live or not?" Mission asked without turning from the terminal. Hope blossomed in the man as he stood.

"What if he betrays us?" Carth asked indignantly.

"He won't." Zaalbar and I said at the same time. Mission snorted but kept working.

"Go," I said motioning to the door. "And be quick, things are going to get hectic soon."

"Thank you." the man said, voice full of sincerity. He darted from the room and disappeared down the hall.

Moments later the lights shut down. The world was bathed in utter darkness for a long moment before red emergency lights flickered on. Mission stood from the terminal looking annoyed.

"Shutting down the security was taking to long, so I faked a natural disaster code, and overloaded the main power line." she said waving at the ceiling. "All the security measures have been deactivated for emergency services, and it will take them days to get main power back." she explained sounding irritated.

"Why are you irritated? That's everything we needed." I asked confused.

"I dislike brute force solutions," she said with a shrug. "And emergency services will show up to investigate. I flooded the system with garbage data to slow it down, but eventually it will get the call out."

"How long?" Carth asked, as shouts drifted to us down the hall.

"No way of knowing for sure," she paused thinking. "An hour, maybe less."

"Let's move." I said, heading out into the hall. I reached out feeling people move across the level. Fear and confusion dominated most of them, but a few were heading right for us with determination. I led the way up the hall at a dead run, drawing my sword. I felt the heavy thump of Zaalbar's stride right behind me as I retraced our steps back towards the lift.

We charged around the final corner and spotted a group of men hurrying down the corridor just past the lift, at a quick trot. They skidded to a halt at the sight of us, lifting weapons. The lead figure, shouted for us to stop, aiming a blaster rifle at my chest. I ignored him, but left my sword lowered by my side, trying to look as nonthreatening as possible. He didn't buy it, two steps later he opened fire. The shot hit in the dead center of my chest. My cortosis infused body armor absorbed the shot easily. Mission's emotions flared with anger behind me. Before I could take another step a knife shot past my ear and slammed into the man's throat.

The man dropped the rifle, clutching his throat. He fell forward, coughing up blood. Startled fear spread through the men, they gaped, frozen by shock. That instant of shocked hesitation doomed them. I reached them in the next heartbeat. Sword flashing, I hacked a bloody path through the group. With every movement, blood sprayed, limbs fell free of bodies, heads rolled from shoulders. I spun dodging a strike and spotted Zaalbar bring his axe down on a man, cleaving him from shoulder to hip. Mission stood next to Carth just outside the Carnage, shooting into the chaos with precision, blasters whining.

In moments the battle was over. The hall was silent, there were no survivors. I bent, wiping my sword on the pants of the corpse at my feet. Straitening I sheathed it and walked to the lift. The others followed, Mission paused to reclaim her knife and wipe it on the man's sleeve before joining us.

I let my mind sweep out, more than a dozen minds waited directly above. Anger and fear swarmed about them like a dark cloud.

"Their waiting for us." I said, voice grim.

"How many?" Carth asked.

"Fifteen," I said focusing on the minds above. "Take us up."

Mission sent us up two floors to the garage. We were crouched on either side of the doors when they opened. The whine of blaster fire filled the air, smoking holes appeared all along the back wall of the lift. I pulled a thermal detonator from the belt across my chest and set it to minimal power. I pushed the activation button and tossed it into the room beyond.

Shouts of alarm echoed through the air as the blaster fire ceased. I covered my ears and pushed back against the wall. The lift shook with a sound like ten thunderclaps. A lighting strip fell from the ceiling, the wall behind me warped under the force. The shock wave carried a cloud of dust and chunks of stone through the open doors with the force of a sandblaster. Then it was over and the world was still once more.

I quested out with my mind, the room beyond only held two minds. Their emotions were so dim I figured they must have been unconscious. Mission peeked around me into the room and made a face.

"That's messier than I thought it would be." she said.

"That was the minimal power setting," I replied poking my head around the corner. Ash and blood covered the ground of a massive garage, spreading out around a two meter wide, blackened crater.

A speeder at edge of the blast radius had been ripped in two and thrown across the room. It had slammed into other vehicles as it went, leaving twisted piles of wreckage in it's wake. I swept out my will looking for more people. Another large group hid behind a door at the north end of the room. I pulled another thermal detonator from the belt as I left the half destroyed lift. The others followed close behind weapons drawn, scanning the room. I stepped up to the side of the door and set the second grenade to the same power setting. Mission stepped up next to me back against the wall and waited. Carth and Zaalbar stayed a few meters back from the door, watching the detonator in my hand.

"Go ahead." I whispered to Mission, focusing on the emotions behind the door, fixing their positions in my mind. She overrode the door with her pad and they started opening. Fear and excitement flashed in the minds beyond, readying themselves. I hit the activator and counted too three before tossing it through the half open doors. Surprise flashed through a few of the minds just before a ball of fire shot out from the door. We huddled against the wall waiting for the ground to stop shaking. When it was finally still, we moved forward and peeked around the corner. The hall beyond was scorched black, wisps of ash and smoke floated in the air.

"That's more what I expected." Mission said examining the hall.

"Confined space." Carth replied moving into the hall.

"Right," Mission said, following, "That makes sense."

Zaalbar shook his big head as he moved after them. I followed casting out for more minds. The hall split a few meters ahead in a T junction.

"Left." I said, when Carth paused looking back and forth down the hall. "Five more, twenty meters, right hand side." Carth's emotions flashed with annoyance but he moved on without comment.

"Anyone else on this level?" Zaalbar growled softly. I shook my head.

"No," I replied. "There are dozens on the floors below, but no one else up here."

"I doubt that lift will work," Mission said softly, approaching the door I had indicated. "No more of them are making it up here for a while." She pulled out her pad and went to work on the door.

"You going to nuke these ones too?" Carth asked softly, watching Mission work.

"No," I said letting irritation tinge my voice. "They might have the prototype in there."

"Just asking." Carth replied, giving me a sidelong look. "Never can tell with you."

"Carth, would you grow up?" Mission hissed softly, without looking up from the pad.

"Excuse me?" Carth snapped.

"Have you told him every detail about your life?" she asked, finally looking back at him.

"No of course not." He replied angrily.

"Okay, then you have no right to all Rorick's secrets." She paused poking him in chest. "Get over it." She turned back to her work without waiting for a response. I could have kissed her, she was really growing on me. Carth just seethed in silence for a moment, then his anger fled and for once it was he, who's emotion flared with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," his said quietly. "You haven't done anything to deserve that."

"Thanks Carth," I managed through my surprise. "I appreciate it." He nodded, looking only slightly petulant. Mission growled in frustration, saving us from saying anything further.

"What?" I asked.

"I can't crack this," she said glaring at the door like it had killed her favorite pet. "I don't know where they got this security, but I can't get through." She pulled a thermal detonator from her bandoleer, and bent to place it next to the door.

"Wait," I said suddenly remembering the pouch at the small of my back. The pouch that still contained the lightsaber I had gotten from the Endar Spire.

"I think I have another way." I said pulling the lightsaber out and showing it to them. Mission's emotions flashed with satisfaction.

"That's Lorna's lightsaber." Carth said staring at it in shock.

Mission's emotions deflated, almost pouting. _'_ _Could have sworn you were a Jedi in disguise.'_ she said silently in Ryl. I grimaced at her.

"How did you get that?" Carth asked carefully, looking from me to the weapon and back.

"If you're talking about a honey blond, blue eyed woman," I paused and he nodded impatiently, "A Sith killed her back on the Spire. I took this as a reminder." I explained, looking down at the beautiful weapon. Carth watched me for a long moment searching my eyes, before letting out a deep sigh.

"Yeah okay, go ahead." he said waving toward the door.

I gave him a small nod and stepped up to the door. The 'snap-hiss' of the lightsaber was loud in the deserted corridor. Blue light painted the walls around us. Taking a two handed grip on the weapon, I let out a deep breath and thrust the blade forward. It sliced through the thick door like butter. Startled amazement flashed across the minds inside the room. I cut a head sized hole at about waist height and pulled the blade free. The edges of the cut still glowed with heat as I tapped the piece of metal out of the hole with my elbow.

"Who's out there?" a female voice asked in Ryl.

"Do you have the prototype you stole from the Beks?" I asked in the same language ignoring her question. There was a pause and the sound of hushed voices, before the voice came back.

"No." The simple reply came at the same moment I felt deceit flare up within the room. With a smile, I pointed at the concussion grenades on Carth's chest and pointed to the hole. He nodded pulling one free, as I slammed the humming lightsaber back into the door.

"Yes we have it," Came the female voice again, sounding a little panicked. "We're willing to trade." I just snorted continuing my cut. When I finished, a rough rectangle two meters high by a meter wide, glowed bright yellow in the blast door. I stepped back and Carth tossed the grenade through the smaller hole. We took cover against the wall as the cutout blew free, with a bight flash of light and thunderclap of noise. I sprinted into the room with the lightsaber still in hand.

Of the five people in the room only one kept his feet. A tall pale yellow Twi'lek, with a combat visor, leveled a sleek black blaster rifle at my chest. I didn't slow, my only chance at that range was to take him before he got a lucky head shot. The blaster let out a high pitched repeating whine, half a dozen bolts hit dead center above my heart. My armor heated rapidly, dispersing the energy. The man's eyes widened as I brought the lightsaber up. With a quick flick of the wrist his head toppled from his shoulders.

"Look out!" Mission shouted from behind. Instinctively I spun just in time for a knife to enter my left side, instead of my spine. I grunted in pain and brought the lightsaber down in a heavy two handed slash on the attacker, cleaving a red skinned Twi'lek woman in half. Zaalbar charged past swinging his massive axe with a roar. The swing caught a stumbling Rodian in side. He yanked the axe free and grabbed the screaming alien by the throat, with a massive heave he tossed dying Rodian across the room to slam into a short human.

Sharp pain buckled my left leg and I fell to one knee. Extinguishing the lightsaber I placed it carefully back in it's pouch, and clutched the wound, applying pressure around the blade. Ignoring the blood flowing through my fingers. I took deep breaths trying to push down the burning pain.

Mission rushed over, fear dominating her emotions. Zaalbar snarled off to my right and a mind flickered out with a cry and a wet 'crunch'.

"Don't we need one alive!" Carth shouted in irritation as Mission knelt beside me. I looked up to see Carth hauling back on one of the Wookiee's massive arms, trying to pull him away from a cowering human. Zaalbar didn't budge and inch. I chuckled despite myself then groaned in pain as the movement jarred the knife.

"Don't move stupid." Mission chided, bending down and pulling my hand away to look at the wound.

"Trying not too." I replied, taking a deep breath.

"You okay?" Carth asked when Zaalbar finally lowered the axe.

"I'll be fine," I said managing a weak grin. "Just a flesh wound."

"Z I need the foam, this is bleeding badly." Mission said looking up.

Zaalbar abandoned the terrified man and came over, pulling the pack from his shoulders. He set it down and unzipped a side pouch pulling out a small canister. Mission took it from him bent back to the wound.

"Deep breath," she said glancing up. "This is going to hurt." I complied taking in a deep lung full of air and letting it out slowly. Pain shot through my left side, as Mission pulled the knife free in a quick clean jerk. Gritting my teeth I moaned softly, black spots dancing in my vision. She pinched the wound closed and raised the little canister. Fresh waves of pain made my head spin, but I managed to hold still. Kolto foam sprayed from the little canister sealing the wound. Cool numbness, spread through my side almost immediately.

"There," Mission said, handing the can back to Zaalbar and looked into my eyes. "How do you feel?"

"A little light headed." I answered honestly, looking down at he puddle of blood under my knee.

"The wound is deep," She said, concern etching her delicate features. "I don't think it hit anything vital, but lost a lot of blood."

Gingerly I tried to stand, Mission took my arm and helped me to my feet. I took a small step nodded when my legs supported me.

"Thanks," I said giving Mission a smile. "I've had much worse than this, I'll be okay." She nodded but concern still filled her emotions.

I turned my attention to the young human still cowering in a corner. Carth stood next to him, casually pointing a blaster at the kid's head. I walked over to them, carefully favoring my side.

"Now, you are going to tell me where the Prototype is." I said softly, looming over him. He pointed a trembling finger to a large cabinet on the wall.

"It's DNA locked." he said softly.

"Who's DNA?" Mission asked, stepping up beside me. He pointed to the red Twi'lek woman.

"Sarina." He sounded on the verge of tears, fear clogged the air around him like a fog.

"Calm down boy," I said in exasperation. "We aren't going to kill you." Carth gave me a dubious look but holstered the blaster. Mission walked past him to the Cabinet. She examined it for a moment touching the front. A red light flashed at the top.

"A hand should do." she said looking back at Zaalbar.

He turned to the corpse and brought his axe down with a wet crunch. The young human violently expelled the contents of his stomach on Carth's boots.

"Really?" Carth groaned, exasperated.

Zaalbar tossed Mission the severed hand, she caught it deftly and slapped it against the cabinet. A green light blinked and the lock clicked. She pulled the doors open, revealing a dull metal cylinder about the size of my thigh.

"That's it." She said with satisfaction. Zaalbar stepped forward and hefted it onto his shoulder like it weighed nothing.

"Grab the kid he's coming with us." I said, pulling a thermal detonator from my chest. He spluttered fearful protests as Carth hauled him to his feet.

"Come on kid, let's go." he said hustling him out the door.

"Get one of their speeders, I saw a couple out there that looked big enough for all of us." I said to Mission, before setting the grenade to full yield and slaving it to my wrist comp. I placed it in the open cabinet before following them out.

Five minutes later we were flying out of the Vulkar's private hanger in a luxury passenger speeder. Carth merged us smoothly into the sky lanes. I glanced around the cab at my companions, feeling a deep sense of pride and relief.

I grinned at Mission and held out my wrist comp. She grinned back and tapped a flashing icon on the screen. Behind us a massive fireball erupted from one of the low buildings, as thermal detonators turned the Vulkar's garage and armory to ash.

"Looks like the paramedics are going to have something to do after all." Mission said with grim satisfaction.


End file.
